What is a Casino?

Casino is a gambling establishment that offers a variety of games to patrons. These include dice and card games such as poker, blackjack, and roulette, as well as sports betting and horse racing. Some casinos also have restaurants, hotels and non-gambling entertainment areas.

Every casino game has a built in advantage for the house, usually less than two percent, which earns casinos a massive income from the millions of bets placed each year by their patrons. This money allows them to build flamboyant buildings with fountains, statues and replicas of famous landmarks around the world. Casinos may also offer free drinks and snacks to keep their patrons in the building longer. This practice, called comping, is a huge source of revenue for casinos and can give them an edge over competitors.

Casinos employ elaborate security measures. Most have surveillance systems, including cameras that watch every table and window, which are often controlled by a room full of casino security workers. In addition, many casinos have high-tech “eyes in the sky” that can be adjusted to focus on suspicious patrons by casino security staff. Gambling is considered a high-risk activity, so casinos spend a lot of time and money on monitoring their patrons. In addition to video cameras, they also use technology to monitor the actual games themselves. In this way, they can ensure that the amount of money wagered on each game matches the expected results and quickly discover any statistical deviations from the norm.