A casino (also known as a gambling house or a gaming room) is an establishment for certain types of gambling. Casinos are often combined with hotels, restaurants, retail shops, and other tourist attractions. They may also be located on cruise ships or in foreign cities.
Gambling has been a part of human culture for millennia, with the first evidence coming from 2300 BC China. It has since spread throughout the world, with dice showing up in 500 AD, card games appearing in the 1400s, and baccarat becoming popular in the 1600s.
In modern casinos, customers gamble by placing cash or casino chips on game outcomes. Most games have mathematically determined odds that give the house an advantage over players, and this advantage is often expressed as a percentage. In some games, such as blackjack, the player’s skill can reduce this advantage. Casinos also take a percentage of winning bets, called the vigorish or rake.
Because large sums of money are handled within a casino, both patrons and staff may be tempted to cheat or steal. To combat this, modern casinos use various security measures. These include a physical security force and a specialized surveillance department. Security personnel patrol the floor and observe activities through one-way mirrors. Some casinos also monitor game results and betting patterns through closed circuit television. In some cases, these systems allow for “chip tracking,” whereby betting chips have built-in microcircuitry that interact with electronic systems at the table and alert casino supervisors to any anomaly.