A casino is a place where people gamble by playing games of chance. The gambling industry draws millions of visitors every year to casinos. While musical shows, lighted fountains and lavish hotels help draw crowds, the billions in profits raked in by casinos come from the games themselves: slot machines, blackjack, roulette, craps, poker and other games with an element of skill.
A casino also offers other activities, such as sports betting and horse racing. In the United States, there are several areas with significant concentrations of casinos: Las Vegas Valley, Atlantic City, Chicago region, and the Gulf Coast. Some casinos are located on American Indian reservations, which are exempt from state antigambling laws.
Many casinos encourage patrons to spend more than they intend by offering perks such as free hotel rooms, meals and show tickets. This practice is known as comping. Some casinos are owned by organized crime groups, which impose their own rules and restrictions on gambling.
Casino security begins on the gaming floor, where employees watch to ensure that players behave as expected and that the games are conducted fairly. Dealers can easily spot blatant cheating such as palming, marking or switching cards or dice. Other workers, such as pit bosses and table managers, keep a more general eye on the game and look for patterns in betting that might signal cheating. Security is also helped by the uniformity of casino games: the way the dealers shuffle and deal cards, the locations of betting spots on the tables and the expected reactions and movements of players all follow specific patterns.
