A casino is a place where people can play various games of chance for money or other goods. The name is derived from the Latin word for “public hall.” Gambling in some form has been seen in almost every culture, from Ancient Mesopotamia to Napoleon’s France to Elizabethan England and modern-day Las Vegas.
Casinos make most of their money from a built in advantage on bets placed by patrons, known as the house edge or vig. This advantage can be very small, but millions of bets add up to significant amounts of money. This money is used to attract and keep visitors, build elaborate hotels and restaurants, and buy and maintain slot machines, table games, fountains, and statues of famous landmarks.
In addition to general security measures, casinos have a number of technologically-advanced surveillance systems. For example, cameras in the ceiling monitor each table, window and doorway; they can be adjusted to focus on suspicious patrons by security workers in a room filled with banks of computerized monitoring screens. Slot machines are monitored electronically as well; they use computers to determine payouts and cannot be tampered with by people.
Casinos also reward good gamblers with “comps,” or free goods and services, based on the amount they spend and the size of their bets. These perks can include meals, hotel rooms, tickets to shows and even airline tickets for high rollers. However, economic studies have shown that the net effect of a casino is negative for a community: it shifts spending away from other forms of local entertainment and may actually cost jobs.