A casino is a facility for certain types of gambling. Casinos are often built near or combined with hotels, restaurants, retail shops, cruise ships and other tourist attractions. They can also serve as entertainment centers for live entertainment and sports events. The term casino can also refer to an establishment operated by a government, military or law enforcement agency.

Elaborate themes, ornate decor and dazzling lights are all part of the casino experience. But beyond the glitz and glamor, casinos are actually business enterprises that rake in billions of dollars each year for owners, investors, companies, state and local governments, and Native American tribes.

With the large amount of money handled within a casino, both patrons and staff may be tempted to cheat or steal, either in collusion or independently. To prevent this, casinos spend a considerable amount of time and effort on security measures. These include the use of cameras throughout the casino, a special system for monitoring betting chips with integrated microcircuitry, and electronic surveillance systems that monitor tables minute by minute for statistical deviations from expected results.

A casino’s profitability is based on the fact that it will eventually win more than its customers lose. This is not due to luck, but rather the laws of mathematics and probability. To this end, casinos employ gaming mathematicians and computer programmers to analyze the probabilities of winning and losing at each game. The results of this analysis are used to set the house edge and variance for each game.