A casino is a place where people gamble on games of chance and sometimes skill. Most casinos offer a variety of games, including roulette, blackjack, and poker. Some casinos also have a restaurant, spa, and other amenities. The Bellagio in Las Vegas is a famous casino known for its dancing fountains and high-end dining. The casino also hosted the movie Ocean’s 11.
In 2005, according to Roper Reports GfK NOP and the U.S. Gaming Panel by TNS, about 51 million people visited a casino in the United States. The average casino visitor was a forty-six-year-old female from a household with above-average income. These visitors made up 23% of the total number of people who gambled in that year.
Something about gambling (probably the presence of large amounts of money) encourages people to cheat, steal and scam their way into a jackpot instead of trying to win by random chance. That’s why casinos spend a lot of time, effort and money on security. They usually have a physical security force and a specialized surveillance department that monitors their closed circuit television system.
Many casinos focus their attention on high rollers, who are gamblers who wager a lot of money. These high rollers are often given exclusive rooms to play in, separate from the main casino floor. They may also get comps, or free gambling opportunities, worth tens of thousands of dollars. These incentives make the high rollers a vital part of the casino business. Until recently, the mob controlled many of the larger casinos in Nevada. But as real estate investors and hotel chains grew richer than the mafia, they bought out the casinos and began to run them independently.