A Casino is a gambling establishment that accepts bets on games of chance and in some cases with an element of skill, such as blackjack and craps. It may also offer other games of chance or skill, such as video poker and roulette. Casinos are primarily located in Nevada and other American states, but also exist on many Native American reservations and in some countries abroad. Some casinos have high ceilings and are decorated with fountains, pyramids, towers and replicas of famous landmarks. Others are wholly automated, with betting chips having built in microcircuitry that interacts with electronic systems to enable the casino to oversee exactly what is wagered minute by minute and alert patrons if any deviation from expected results occurs.

Most games have a built in mathematical advantage for the casino, which is known as the house edge. The edge can be relatively small (less than two percent) but over millions of bets it earns the casino enough money to finance lavish hotels, spectacular shows and other amenities. For games where the house is not competing against players (such as poker) it may earn money through a commission called the rake.

Casino security starts with a highly trained staff that is always looking out for crooks and cheats. In addition, a number of sophisticated surveillance systems provide an eye-in-the-sky view of the entire casino that can be monitored remotely by security personnel in a control room filled with banks of monitors.