When most people think of a casino, they envision one of the giant resorts in Las Vegas, complete with flashy neon lights and games. However, according to Merriam-Webster’s dictionary, a casino is simply “a place for social amusements, especially gambling.”
While musical shows, lighted fountains and shopping centers help draw in the crowds, casinos would not exist without games of chance that give them billions in profits each year. Blackjack, roulette, craps and keno are some of the most popular casino games, but there are many others. This article takes a look at how casinos make money, what games they offer, and how security keeps patrons safe from cheating or criminal activity.
In the United States, casinos first appeared in Nevada after mobsters realized they could capitalize on the huge numbers of people traveling to the state to gamble. They provided the cash to build and operate the casinos, and mobsters often took sole or partial ownership of them. Eventually, real estate investors and hotel chains began to realize how much they could make with casino operations, and mob involvement declined as federal crackdowns on organized crime made it impossible to conceal gangster funds.
The security of a casino depends on more than just cameras and other technological devices. Security personnel also watch for patterns in the way players act and interact with each other, the dealers’ actions and the location of the betting spots on a table or slot machine. Casinos also employ “chip tracking,” which involves placing sensors in the chips that monitor their movement minute-by-minute and alert the casino to any deviation from expected results.
