A casino (or gambling house) is a room or building where people play games of chance for money. These games are often combined with other activities, such as dining and entertainment. In the United States, casinos are licensed and regulated by state law. Some states permit casino gaming only in certain types of establishments, such as those owned by Indian tribes. Others prohibit it entirely. Most casinos are located in the United States, but some are found internationally. Most casinos are large buildings built around a central gaming area, with bar and restaurant facilities. Some have theaters for live entertainment.
In modern times, most casinos employ a combination of physical security forces and specialized surveillance departments to monitor patrons and their actions. The casinos are also wired for closed circuit television, which enables the management to keep track of any suspicious or potentially criminal activity in the facility. A casino’s gambling operations may be subject to a variety of state and federal laws, including those that govern commercial and recreational gambling, lottery sales, and the manufacture and distribution of slot machines.
The majority of casino gambling involves card games. These include baccarat, chemin de fer, blackjack, and poker. Some casinos offer a wide variety of other card games, such as pai gow and Caribbean stud, and some even host regular poker tournaments. Casinos are also the primary venues for some table games, such as craps and roulette. In these games, the house usually takes a percentage of each bet made, a practice known as raking. Casinos also earn income from machine-based games such as slot machines and video poker, which are governed by mathematical formulas that ensure the house always has an expected value advantage over the players.
Because of the large amounts of currency handled within a casino, both patrons and staff may be tempted to cheat or steal, either in collusion or independently; thus, most casinos have stringent security measures. These usually involve the use of cameras to observe all areas of the casino, and security personnel stationed throughout the facility. Many casinos also have special catwalks above the gaming floor, which allow security personnel to look down through one-way glass at the players and their activities.
Casinos are growing ever larger, as they compete to offer the most comprehensive and luxurious experiences to their customers. They are adding more rooms and games, hiring world-famous chefs, constructing spectacular structures, and offering more amenities to attract the biggest spenders. They are also striving to be the largest in their region, or even the world. The latest casino colossus is the Hotel Lisboa in Macau, which features an LED dome covering more than a million lights and a two-tiered casino with thousands of slot machines and tables. It is a dazzling landmark in this former Portuguese colony that is rapidly becoming Asia’s gambling capital.