A casino is a place where people gamble on games of chance. It may be combined with hotels, restaurants, shops and other tourist attractions. People often take weekend trips to casinos with friends or family to gamble and have fun. The casino industry is booming and there are new games all the time. People play slots, blackjack, and roulette. They also watch shows and play in the sports book.
The security in a casino is very tight. There are cameras everywhere. People who work on the floor are trained to spot blatant cheating such as palming cards or marking dice. They also follow betting patterns in table games to see if patrons are taking advantage of each other. They also keep track of how much money their tables are winning or losing and report this to higher ups.
Casinos make money by ensuring that they have at least a tiny statistical advantage in every game they offer. They can afford to do this because they make millions of dollars in bets. The advantage can be as low as a couple of percent. The casino advantages for games like roulette, craps and poker depend on how many people play them. They are lower in France where roulette appeals to big bettors and they are higher in America where people mostly play video poker machines that require a tiny statistical edge of a few percent.
The mob once controlled a lot of casinos but real estate investors and hotel chains with deep pockets bought out the gangsters and now run them without any interference from the Mafia. Federal crackdowns mean that even the faintest hint of Mafia involvement will result in a lost gambling license.