A casino is an establishment for certain types of gambling. It is also a facility for certain types of entertainment, such as live music and stage shows. Some casinos are integrated with hotels, restaurants, retail shops and cruise ships.
Many states have legalized casinos, which are designed to attract tourists and increase local economic activity. The largest casinos are in Las Vegas, Atlantic City and Chicago. In addition to gaming machines, casinos feature a variety of other games such as poker, baccarat, blackjack and roulette. Most of these games have some element of skill, but the house always has a mathematical advantage over players. This advantage, called the house edge, is the source of the billions in profits casinos rake in each year.
The most popular games are slot machines, which account for a majority of casino revenues. Other popular casino games include baccarat, blackjack, roulette and craps. In addition to these mainstream games, some casinos specialize in traditional Far Eastern games such as sic bo and fan-tan.
Modern casinos are heavily regulated and have a high level of security. They often have a combination of physical security force and specialized surveillance departments. Elaborate surveillance systems offer a high-tech “eye-in-the-sky” that allows security personnel to monitor the entire casino floor at once using cameras mounted in the ceiling and controlled from a room filled with banks of security monitors. Casinos also use other sophisticated methods to prevent cheating and theft, such as microcircuitry in betting chips that can be monitored minute-by-minute for statistical deviations; and computerized systems that monitor roulette wheels and slot machines to discover any anomalies.