A casino is an establishment for certain types of gambling. Many casinos are combined with hotels, restaurants, retail shops, and other tourist attractions. Some even host live entertainment. Some of the most famous casinos are located in Las Vegas, Nevada. Others are situated on American Indian reservations, or are built inside riverboats. Still others are found on cruise ships, or are located in countries with legalized gambling.
A modern casino has a wide variety of games available for its patrons, from traditional table games such as blackjack and poker to slot machines and video poker. Many of these games are based on luck, but some require skill, such as baccarat and roulette. Most of these games have a house advantage, which is determined mathematically and is known as the vig or rake. The house edge can be as low as two percent, but it earns the casinos enough money to build flamboyant hotels, fountains, pyramids and towers and to hire security personnel to keep out troublemakers.
In addition to ensuring that players are not cheating, casinos also employ sophisticated surveillance systems to monitor their gambling activities. High-tech “eye-in-the-sky” cameras watch every table, window and doorway; they can be focused on suspicious patrons by security workers in a separate room filled with banks of security monitors. Casinos are also equipped with electronic systems that monitor the exact amounts of money wagered minute by minute, and automatically alert security if the odds of winning or losing change.
There are a number of other ways that casinos make money, including comping (giving away free goods and services to high-volume gamblers). These are usually given in exchange for a player’s loyalty. Free hotel rooms, food and drinks are common, as are tickets to shows and limo service. Casinos also make money from a percentage of the payouts on slot machines, which are called commissions.
Gambling is a popular form of recreation worldwide, and casinos are designed to appeal to a broad range of people with different interests. In 2005, according to research by Roper Reports GfK NOP and TNS, the typical casino gambler was a forty-six-year-old female from a household with an above-average income. Compulsive gamblers, however, generate a disproportionate share of the profits for casinos.