A casino, also known as a gambling house or a gaming palace, is an establishment for certain types of gambling. Most casinos feature a mixture of traditional and electronic games, such as slot machines, roulette, blackjack, craps, and poker. Many casinos are built near or combined with hotels, restaurants, retail shops, and other tourist attractions. Some casinos are famous for their entertainment offerings, such as high-profile concerts and comedy acts.
The precise origin of gambling is unknown, but it has been an important part of human culture for millennia. Evidence of early gambling has been found in China (2300 BC), Rome (500 AD), and Greece (1400s). Modern casinos typically employ two separate departments for security: a physical force that patrols the casino floor, and a specialized surveillance department that monitors the games. For example, casinos now routinely use technology to supervise their tables via “chip tracking” which electronically records the amount of money wagered on each bet minute-by-minute and alerts the casino to any anomaly; likewise, roulette wheels are monitored to discover any deviation from their expected results.
Most casino games have a built-in advantage for the house, which is mathematically determined and usually expressed as an expectation of profit, or an expected value that is uniformly negative from the player’s perspective. This advantage is called the house edge. In table games, such as baccarat, chemin de fer, and blackjack, the house makes its profit by taking a fixed percentage of each wager or charging an hourly fee for play.