A casino (or gambling house) is a place where people can play a variety of games of chance. These include card games like blackjack and roulette, as well as dice and a variety of slot machines. In addition to the games, casinos often offer other attractions such as restaurants, shopping malls and stage shows. Casinos can be found worldwide, but many of them are associated with exotic destinations.
A surprisingly large amount of money changes hands in casinos, so security is a high priority. The most obvious way that casinos protect themselves from cheating is through cameras, but they also have a number of other measures in place. Each person at a table game has a higher-up watching over them, able to spot blatant attempts to cheat by palming, marking or switching cards or dice. In some cases, the casinos have whole teams dedicated to tracking these issues, a job known as gaming analysis.
In the United States, Las Vegas holds the distinction of being home to the largest casino, but it isn’t the first. That honor goes to Ledyard, Connecticut’s Foxwoods Resort Casino, which opened in 1968.
In recent decades, casinos have been popping up all over the world, including on American Indian reservations, which are exempt from state antigambling laws. They’ve also been a hit in Atlantic City, which opened in 1978, and in various other places where gambling is legal. The biggest casinos can have thousands of slots and tables, and they often offer live entertainment.