A casino is a gambling establishment where patrons wager money against the house in games of chance. These establishments may be located in a variety of places, including land-based casinos, cruise ships, aircrafts, and even spacecraft. In addition to gambling, many casinos also offer restaurants, hotels, and entertainment.
Beneath the flashing lights and free cocktails, a casino is a business, engineered to slowly bleed its customers of their cash. Every game in a casino gives the house a built-in advantage, which is called the “house edge.” The higher a player’s stake, the greater the edge. This gives the house a virtual assurance of gross profit.
To counter this, casinos use a number of incentives to lure players and keep them playing. Known as comps, these perks include discounted or free hotel rooms, food, drinks and show tickets. During the 1970s, casinos used these comps to encourage people to travel to Las Vegas and spend more money. These strategies were successful in increasing tourist traffic and driving gambling revenue.
In addition to offering these perks, casinos employ sophisticated security measures. For example, they have cameras in the ceiling and on the floor that can be adjusted to focus on specific patrons. Casinos also have a bank of monitors that display video feeds from all areas of the building, so casino workers can see suspicious behavior. Moreover, they have special monitors to detect cheating on slot machines. Lastly, they have a system where the payouts are determined by computer chips in each machine rather than human personnel.