A casino is a place where people gamble, usually for money. They also offer food, drinks and entertainment. Casinos are generally designed to be fun and exciting and they succeed by encouraging their visitors to stay longer and take more risks. To do so, they reward their players with free goods and services (like hotel rooms and restaurant meals) when they gamble enough to earn them points.
In addition to rewarding their players, casinos often work to make their gambling environment as secure as possible. They use cameras, surveillance systems and strict rules of conduct to keep their patrons safe. Some casinos even have security officers patrolling the floors to deter crime and cheaters.
Like many large businesses, casinos generate substantial tax revenues that are used to help fund local services and programs. They may even help bring down unemployment rates or increase average wages in the area surrounding their establishments. In some cases, casinos have been known to produce more revenue for the city than other businesses and can save struggling communities from having to cut public services or raise taxes elsewhere.
Unlike other epic mafia dramas like Goodfellas, Scorsese’s Casino is less about the characters’ individual plights and more about the corruption of an entire city. It’s a sleazy and compelling movie that manages to be more affecting because it feels more real and less fictional than other mafia films. De Niro is superb as usual, but Sharon Stone is truly electrifying as the hooker Ginger, and Joe Pesci’s Santoro is both terrifying and utterly convincing.