What Is a Casino?

A casino is a place where a wide variety of games of chance can be played. It often is combined with restaurants, hotels, retail shopping or cruise ships. Its primary purpose is to provide entertainment and the opportunity to win money through gambling.

It’s not quite as easy as just opening a place that houses gambling activities. There are a number of luxuries that casinos add in an effort to lure people in, such as free drinks, stage shows and dramatic scenery. But the basic concept of a casino is unchanged from its beginnings.

In the past casinos tended to be controlled by organized crime groups. Mob money flowed steadily into Reno and Las Vegas, where the gangsters weren’t bothered by gambling’s seamy image. Real estate investors and hotel chains eventually had more cash than the mobsters, so they bought out their stakes. Federal crackdowns on mobsters and other criminal activity keep mob money out of legitimate casinos now.

Because of the large amounts of money that are handled within a casino, it’s not unusual for criminal activity to occur there. Cheating and stealing by patrons, in collusion with staff members, are common. For this reason casinos have security measures in place to prevent crime, and most use cameras to monitor all areas of the facility. The cameras also make it possible for security workers to review tapes later to see who was responsible for a particular incident or to watch for suspicious behavior.