A casino is a place where people play games of chance for money, with gambling being the main activity. Casinos add luxuries like restaurants, free drinks, stage shows and dramatic scenery to attract visitors, but the vast majority of profits are derived from the games. Slot machines, blackjack, roulette and craps are just a few of the games that draw in gamblers and generate billions in profits each year.
Casinos have a number of security measures to keep their patrons safe and to prevent cheating or illegal activities. The most obvious way they do this is by monitoring everything that happens in the gaming rooms via cameras. Security personnel watch the cameras from a room filled with banks of screens and can focus in on specific tables or suspicious patrons. They can also monitor the payouts on slot machines and see who is winning or losing.
In the beginning, many casinos were owned by organized crime figures, who had lots of cash from drug dealing and extortion rackets. The mob helped bring casino gambling to Reno and Las Vegas and dominated the business for years, until real estate investors and hotel chains with deep pockets began buying out their assets. Federal anti-mob crackdowns and the fear of losing a gambling license at the slightest hint of Mafia involvement now keep mobster-owned casinos out of business.