A casino is a gambling establishment that offers a variety of games of chance and is open to the public. Most casinos offer a wide variety of table and slot games, and some even have restaurants and stage shows. Some of the more famous casinos are located in Las Vegas and Atlantic City. However, casinos can also be found in other cities and countries.
Casinos make money by charging an advantage to players on some games, which is called the vig or rake. The edge can be small (less than two percent), but it adds up over the millions of bets placed by patrons each year. This revenue allows the casino to build opulent hotel-casino complexes with towers, fountains, and replicas of ancient temples or famous buildings.
Despite the seamy image associated with casinos, organized crime figures saw an opportunity for profit and invested heavily in them during the 1950s and 1960s. They took sole or partial ownership of some casinos, used them as fronts for drug dealing and extortion, and provided bankrolls for others.
The large amounts of cash handled by a casino make it vulnerable to cheating and theft by both patrons and staff, especially when employees are underpaid or poorly trained. To counter this, many casinos have security measures in place. The most basic measure is a system of surveillance cameras that monitor the entire casino floor. In addition, most casinos reward frequent patrons with comps such as free food, rooms, or show tickets.