A casino is a gambling establishment, usually featuring card games, slot machines, table games like blackjack and roulette and live entertainment. Some casinos are sprawling resorts, while others are small and intimate. Casinos generate billions of dollars in revenue each year for the companies, investors and Native American tribes that own them. They also draw tourists from all over the world.
Something about gambling—or maybe just the presence of large amounts of money—seems to encourage people to cheat and steal, either in collusion with each other or independently. That’s why casinos spend a lot of time and effort on security measures. The most basic is to have numerous surveillance cameras throughout the facility.
In addition to video surveillance, many casinos have an eye-in-the-sky system that allows casino security workers to view the entire floor at once from a room filled with banks of monitors. They can adjust the camera’s focus to watch specific patrons, or zoom in on any suspicious behavior.
Casino patrons come from all walks of life, but the majority are forty-six years old and older. They belong to households with above-average incomes and are often single or widowed. Many are retired, and some have college degrees.
Casinos try to maximize the number of people gambling on their premises, and they offer a variety of perks designed to encourage people to gamble and to reward those who do. These perks, called comps, include discounted travel packages, free buffets and show tickets. They also have brightly colored carpets and wall coverings, and they don’t display clocks on the walls because they want gamblers to lose track of time and stay longer.