A Casino is a gambling establishment where people can place wagers on games of chance. They often feature a wide variety of entertainment, including musical shows, shopping centers and elaborate themes. While these elements are important to the success of a casino, most of its profits come from games such as slot machines, blackjack, roulette and craps. The modern Casino is a sprawling facility filled with gaming tables and lighted slots.
Something about gambling (perhaps the large amounts of money involved) seems to encourage both patrons and staff to cheat, steal or scam their way into a jackpot. To counter these temptations, casinos spend a great deal of time and money on security measures. Most casinos use cameras to monitor every corner of the premises. Some have high-tech “eyes-in-the-sky” systems that give security personnel a view of the entire casino from a room filled with banks of monitors.
There are also a number of less-obvious security measures that make a casino more secure. For example, dealers at table games are trained to spot a variety of cheating methods such as palming, marking or switching dice. They are also careful to watch for patterns in betting that might indicate a patron is trying to beat the house edge. Casino security also includes a strict code of conduct for patrons that is enforced by casino staff. In addition, some casinos use specially-trained sniffer dogs to detect narcotics and illegal drugs. Casinos in the United States are mostly located in Nevada, although there are several in Atlantic City and Illinois. London boasts a few, such as the Empire in Leicester Square and the Victoria Casino in Paddington.