A casino (also referred to as a gambling establishment or a gaming house) is an establishment for certain types of gambling. Casinos are often combined with hotels, resorts, restaurants, retail shops, and even cruise ships. Some states have legalized casino gambling, while others have banned it.
Casinos are based on games of chance and/or skill, and provide billions in profits each year. The majority of casinos are located in the United States, with the most famous being Las Vegas and Atlantic City.
The casino’s security starts on the ground floor, where dealers keep their eyes peeled for any cheating patrons attempting to palm or mark cards, switch dice or other objects, or make other blatant attempts at cheating. The casino staff also includes table managers and pit bosses who have a wider view of the game tables, watching for suspicious betting patterns that could signal cheating. Each person working at a table is also tracked by someone higher up who watches them as they work and notes the total amount of money their tables win or lose.
A casino is a business, and like any other business it must maintain its profitability. With that in mind, every game offered by a casino has a mathematical expectancy that is guaranteed to result in the house making more than it loses. To offset this, casinos offer big bettors extravagant inducements such as free spectacular entertainment and luxury living quarters. They also give lesser bettors free food, drinks and cigarettes while gambling and discounted transportation and hotel rooms.