A Casino is a gambling establishment that offers various games of chance and other entertainment to customers. Many casinos also offer other business services, such as convention and meeting space, restaurants, retail shopping, hotel rooms, and cruise ships. Licensed casinos are considered financial institutions under the Bank Secrecy Act and must register as such. Casinos are typically located in states where gambling is legal.

Most casinos are built on the outskirts of urban areas and feature extravagant decorations, fountains, statues, and replicas of famous landmarks. They are primarily funded by patrons’ wagering activities and generate revenue through the house edge of each game. This advantage can be as low as two percent, but it adds up over millions of bets. To reduce the house edge, casinos offer free food and drinks to attract and keep players. In addition, they use chips instead of actual money so that players are not as concerned about losing real cash.

Some casinos specialize in certain games of chance, such as roulette (in France, where the house advantage is less than 1 percent), and craps (which attracts big bettors). Other popular games include blackjack, baccarat, video poker, and slot machines. Casinos often have Asian gaming sections featuring traditional Far Eastern games such as sic bo (which spread to several European and American casinos during the 1990s), fan-tan, and pai-gow.

To maintain their advantage, casinos use various measures to prevent cheating and theft by both patrons and staff members. They employ a combination of physical security forces and specialized surveillance departments to monitor activity. Some casinos have catwalks in the ceiling above the casino floor that allow surveillance personnel to look directly down on tables and slot machines through one-way glass. In addition, they provide comps to high-volume players, giving them free hotel rooms, meals, tickets to shows, and even limo service and airline tickets.