A casino is a gambling establishment with games of chance and some involving skill. Its games are played against the house rather than against other patrons (except for card games such as poker). Table games, like blackjack and roulette, feature a dealer and a deck of cards, while slot machines and video poker give players a mechanical advantage. The casino’s profit comes from its mathematically determined odds and a rake, which is the percentage of money paid in for play.
Gambling has been a part of human culture for millennia. Its roots are found in China at 2300 BC, with dice appearing in Rome in 500 AD and playing cards in the early 1600s. Modern casinos began to appear in the United States in the late 1970s, with Atlantic City leading the way in 1978. In the 1980s and ’90s casinos also started appearing on American Indian reservations, which are exempt from state antigambling laws.
Despite the glamour, casinos are not for everyone. Some players become addicted, generating five percent of casino profits while costing communities billions in lost productivity and treatment costs. Casinos must therefore spend a great deal of money to keep their patrons safe.
In addition to the usual security measures, some casinos employ elaborate surveillance systems with cameras positioned to watch every table and seat. These high-tech eye-in-the-sky systems are adjusted by security workers in a room filled with banks of screens, who can focus on suspicious patrons or even zoom in on individual faces to catch them if they try to cheat.