A casino is a place where gambling games are played and money is won. Many casinos add theaters, stage shows and other entertainment to help attract customers, but the gambling activity is what brings in the billions of dollars of profits that make a casino successful. In this article we will take a look at how a casino makes its money, the history of casinos and some of the popular casino gambling games like slots, blackjack, roulette, craps and keno.
Casinos earn their profits from the fact that every casino game has a built in statistical advantage for the house, sometimes as small as two percent, but enough to generate huge amounts of cash from bets made by millions of patrons over time. This edge, known as the vigorish or rake, helps the casino maintain a profit even after paying out winning bets. It also allows the casinos to offer big bettors extravagant inducements in the form of free spectacular entertainment, luxury hotel rooms, transportation and reduced-fare casino travel.
Something about the presence of large amounts of money in a casino encourages people to cheat, steal and scam their way into a jackpot. That’s why casinos spend a lot of time, effort and money on security. A typical casino has a physical security force that patrols the floor and responds to calls for assistance or suspicious or definite criminal activity, along with a specialized surveillance department that uses cameras wired in a high-tech “eye-in-the sky” system to watch every table, window and doorway.