A casino is a place where people can gamble. It is sometimes combined with hotels, resorts, restaurants, retail shops or cruise ships. Some casinos also host live entertainment, such as stand-up comedy or concerts. It may also be referred to as a gaming house, gambling hall, or land-based casino. A casino is a gambling establishment where the majority of the activities are related to betting on games of chance. This includes games such as roulette, blackjack, poker, and craps.
While musical shows, lighted fountains and elaborate themes help to draw in customers, casinos are really built around the business of gambling. Slot machines, craps, baccarat, blackjack and other games of chance account for the billions in profits raked in by American casinos each year.
Modern casinos are heavily reliant on technology to enforce security and monitor transactions. Video cameras are used to keep watch over the gaming floor and patrons, and many casino table games have special chips with built-in microcircuitry that allow them to be monitored electronically for unauthorized activity. Roulette wheels are regularly electronically inspected for statistical deviations that could be indicative of cheating.
Besides technological surveillance, casinos rely on other methods to discourage cheating and theft by players. Dealers are trained to spot blatant attempts at cheating by looking at the way a player bets, examining their reactions and watching how other players react to a particular situation. Casino employees also follow a set of routines in how they shuffle cards and deal, which makes it easy for security to notice when a dealer goes outside the usual routine.
There have been a number of controversies over the role of casinos in society, particularly how they affect local economies. Critics argue that they pull people away from other forms of entertainment, such as shopping and dining out, and that the money spent by addicted gamblers drains local businesses. Some economic studies show that the net value of a casino to a community is actually negative, due to the shift in spending from other sources and the cost of treating problem gambling.
In the United States, most casinos are owned by private corporations and operated by individuals licensed by state governments. Most states require potential owners to undergo a thorough background check and be of legal age to gamble. Some jurisdictions also regulate the types of games offered and the minimum wage required for dealers. Some states have banned the use of credit cards in casinos, while others have mandated that all transactions must be cash. In addition, some cities and towns have banned casinos altogether, while others have enacted ordinances regulating their size and location. In the past, mobster-run casinos were common, but as their power waned in the latter part of the 20th century real estate developers and hotel chains bought out the mobsters and took over the operation of most casino businesses. Mobsters still run a few small illegal casinos, but federal crackdowns and the threat of losing their license at any hint of Mafia involvement have kept them out of most legitimate operations.