A casino is a facility for certain types of gambling. It can be found near or combined with hotels, restaurants, retail shops, cruise ships and other tourist attractions. The best casinos combine high stakes with luxury, featuring opulent suites, spas and fine dining alongside roulette wheels and blackjack tables.
The word casino is derived from the Latin casina, meaning “little house”. A more precise definition is a building or room where games of chance are played. Most casinos feature traditional table games like craps, roulette and baccarat, as well as card games such as blackjack and poker. Many also offer keno and other electronic gaming machines.
Casinos are generally staffed with people trained to spot cheating and other criminal activity. Security personnel may be divided into a physical force that patrols the floor and a specialized surveillance department that operates a casino’s closed circuit television system. These departments work closely together and are generally quite effective in preventing crime.
Something about the very nature of gambling seems to encourage people to cheat, steal and scam their way into a jackpot instead of winning through random chance. For this reason, casinos spend a large amount of time and money on security.