A casino is a gambling establishment where customers gamble by playing games of chance or skill. These games include blackjack, roulette, craps, baccarat, and poker. Some casinos also offer slot machines and video poker. Customers gamble for money or prizes and the house earns a profit by taking a percentage of each bet or charging an hourly fee. Casinos may be located in large resorts, standalone buildings, or on boats or barges. Casinos are often operated by governments, private companies, or Native American tribes. They generate billions of dollars each year for their operators, investors, and local economies.

In the modern world, casinos use technology to monitor games for suspicious activity. For example, casino chips have built-in microcircuitry that enable them to be tracked minute by minute and to signal any statistical deviations; a computer system oversees the results of roulette wheels, detecting any anomalies quickly. Casinos are also staffed with employees trained to detect fraudulent activities and assist players in resolving disputes.

The oldest casino is the Casino di Venezia in Venice, Italy, which opened as a theater in 1738 and later added gambling during performance intermissions. In the twenty-first century, casino designers aim to make the experience as luxurious as possible. For example, the curved glass facade of Macao’s Hotel Lisboa is reminiscent of a birdcage and is illuminated by more than a million LED lights. The casino features more than 1,800 slots and 800 tables, as well as a variety of restaurants and bars.