Casino is a large building that houses a variety of gambling games and activities. In addition to traditional table and card games, casinos offer a wide range of video and slot machines. Many casinos also have restaurants, hotels, non-gambling game rooms and other facilities for visitors to enjoy.
Casinos make money by offering an edge to the house on each bet placed by patrons. This advantage can be very small (less than two percent), but it adds up over time to earn the casino millions of dollars. This money allows the casino to finance elaborate hotel and entertainment complexes, fountains, pyramids, towers and replicas of famous landmarks.
In the United States, Las Vegas is the leading casino center, followed by Atlantic City and Chicago. Other cities with significant concentrations of casinos include Biloxi, Mississippi; Shreveport, Louisiana; and Reno, Nevada.
Because large sums of cash are handled within a casino, both patrons and employees may be tempted to cheat and steal. To prevent this, casinos employ a number of security measures. Among these are cameras throughout the facility that monitor betting chips to detect any suspicious patterns. Security personnel also patrol the casino floor, watching for blatant cheating by dealers or patrons.
Casinos often attract high rollers who gamble a lot and spend more than average amounts of money. To reward these players, casinos provide them with special rooms and a host of other perks. It is also common for casinos to offer free luxury suites to players who make big bets, even if they lose.