What Is a Casino?

A casino is a gambling establishment offering patrons games of chance to win money or other rewards. In the United States, casinos are licensed and regulated by state governments. Most have hotel rooms, restaurants and entertainment venues. Many also offer electronic gaming machines and sports betting.

In the United States, most casinos are operated by private corporations and are often based in or near cities. Some are located on Indian reservations, which are exempt from state antigambling laws. The largest concentration of casinos is in Las Vegas, Nevada, although they are also found in Atlantic City, New Jersey, and Chicago, Illinois. The casinos in these places draw customers from around the world.

Casinos make money by leveraging the statistical advantage built into most games of chance. That advantage can be as low as two percent, but it adds up over the billions of dollars in bets placed by casino patrons each year. The advantage is known as the house edge or vig and is collected by the casino through wagers, a fee charged for table games like poker and blackjack, and in video poker and slot machines.

Casinos employ a variety of security measures to prevent cheating and theft by both patrons and employees. These include cameras and other surveillance equipment, the use of random number generators to generate winning numbers, and “chip tracking,” where the casino oversees each wager minute by minute and is alerted to any deviation from expected results.