A casino, also known as a gambling house or a gaming hall, is a facility for certain types of gambling. Some casinos are built as standalone buildings, while others are built as part of hotels, resorts, or cruise ships. In the United States, the term casino is used mostly to refer to a large facility that offers a wide variety of gambling activities.
Gambling has been a feature of human civilization for millennia, and in many places throughout the world legalized forms of it now exist. The oldest evidence of gambling dates back to 2300 BC China, where wooden blocks were found that could be rolled or flipped for fortunes. In modern times, games of chance with a small element of skill, such as roulette, blackjack, and poker, are the dominant games in casino gambling. Most of these games have mathematically determined odds that give the house a statistical advantage over players, and this is often expressed as an expected value (EV) or a house edge.
The most profitable casino games are slot machines and video poker, which generate high volumes of play at low stakes. These games allow the casino to maintain a very low edge, often less than one percent. In contrast, table games such as blackjack and poker have a much higher house edge, but these games attract larger bettors and generate more substantial incomes for the casino.
Casinos are a common sight in cities and major towns around the world. They offer a variety of entertainment to patrons such as shows, restaurants, and retail outlets, in addition to gambling. Casinos are generally staffed with a combination of physical security forces and specialized surveillance departments that work together to prevent criminal activity and other problems within the facility.