A casino is a place where people can gamble and win money by playing games of chance, in some cases with an element of skill. Many casinos also have restaurants, theaters and other forms of entertainment, and offer a variety of other luxuries to attract customers.

A typical modern casino may have hundreds of gaming tables, and be housed in a massive building with an elaborate interior design. Modern casinos also have high-tech surveillance systems that allow security workers to watch every table, window and doorway of the building at all times. These cameras can be adjusted to focus on suspicious patrons by security staff in a separate room filled with banks of monitors.

Because large amounts of money are involved, casino patrons can sometimes be tempted to cheat or steal, either in collusion with others or independently. For this reason, casinos spend a lot of time and money on security. In addition to security cameras, most modern casinos have other security measures in place to prevent such activities.

Casinos were once primarily mob-controlled businesses, but after the mob was broken up, hotel and real estate investors took over the business of running casinos. Today, the largest casinos are located in Las Vegas, Atlantic City, and the state of Iowa, where gambling is legal. Many other cities and states have small casinos that provide gambling opportunities for local residents. Some of these casinos are more like resorts than traditional casinos, and include restaurants, non-gambling gaming rooms, swimming pools and other amenities to appeal to families and other types of visitors.