Casino is a place to spend time for entertainment and make some money by playing games of chance. People of all ages come here to try their luck in various games of chance. While musical shows, lighted fountains and shopping centers may help draw in visitors, casinos would not exist without games of chance such as slots, poker, blackjack, roulette, craps, baccarat and video poker. These games generate the billions in profits that casinos rake in every year.
In order to maintain their advantage, casinos must accept a certain amount of bets from patrons. This is known as the house edge, and it varies by game. Casinos use this edge to make sure they win a profit over the long term. They also use it to justify giving big bettors extravagant inducements such as free shows, transportation and living quarters.
Something about gambling (and perhaps the presence of large amounts of money) seems to encourage a lot of cheating, stealing and scamming by casino patrons. To combat this, casinos spend a huge amount of money on security. This goes beyond the obvious, such as cameras that watch the entire casino floor from every angle and window. There is also a more subtle aspect to this: the way in which games of chance are played creates expected patterns that can be spotted by trained security personnel. These patterns are matched against a database of expected behavior to spot deviations, such as when a dealer fudges a deal or the player starts acting strangely at the table.
