A casino (also known as a gambling house or a gaming establishment) is a place where people can play games of chance for money. Some casinos also offer restaurants and other amenities such as entertainment, shopping, or tours. Casinos can be found worldwide and are often combined with hotels, resorts, restaurants, retail shops, and even cruise ships.
Something about the atmosphere of a casino encourages cheating and theft, either in collusion or independently, by both patrons and employees. In response, casinos spend a lot of time and money on security. The use of cameras throughout the facility is one common method. Other methods include requiring players to keep their cards visible at all times, limiting the number of hands per hour a player can make, and ensuring that dice are rolled fairly.
Because all casino games involve a certain amount of luck, the mathematical expectation of winning is always negative for the players; this is called the house edge. To offset this, casinos make money by charging a fee for each transaction, or by collecting a percentage of the total stakes. These fees are called rakes and vigs respectively.
In the United States, there are now forty states that allow some form of legalized gambling, with Nevada having the largest concentration of casinos. According to a 2005 study by Roper Reports GfK NOP and the U.S. Gaming Panel by TNS, the average casino gambler is a forty-six-year-old female from a household with above-average income.