A casino (or gambling house) is a place where people can play games of chance and where gambling is the primary activity. Casinos can also offer stage shows, restaurants and retail shops. Many casinos combine these activities into a single building.
Casinos are a giant form of entertainment for adults that attracts millions of tourists each year. Although stage shows, shopping centers and lavish hotels help bring in the crowds, casinos would not exist without the bets placed on slot machines, blackjack, roulette, craps, baccarat and other casino games that generate billions of dollars for their owners each year.
Gambling in some form has been a part of human culture throughout history, from Ancient Mesopotamia and the Greeks to Napoleon’s France and Elizabethan England. But it wasn’t until Nevada legalized casino gambling in 1931 that casino gambling began to grow into a nationwide industry.
Because every casino game has a built-in advantage for the house (typically less than two percent), casinos make money by attracting large numbers of bettors and keeping their total expenditures high. To do this, they reward “good” gamblers with free hotel rooms, dinners, tickets to shows and even limo service and airline tickets.
Casinos are often decorated in red, a color that makes people feel excited and happy. They also don’t put clocks on the walls because they want patrons to lose track of time and stay longer. The elegant spa town of Baden-Baden in Germany, for example, first became a playground for European royalty and aristocracy 150 years ago and still welcomes them with its extravagantly outfitted gambling facilities.
