What You Need to Know About Casinos
Casino is a word that conjures up images of sleek, modern gambling dens, filled with gamblers and other patrons enjoying all manner of table games and slot machines. These modern casinos, however, are often designed to appeal to a much wider audience than their traditional and more exclusive forebears. These casino sites also often feature hotels, restaurants and other amenities that are more associated with resorts than with traditional gaming establishments.
While a casino’s primary purpose is to generate profit by the offering of various gambling activities, many of them offer other incentives to keep their patrons happy and coming back. These extras might include free spectacular entertainment, free or reduced-fare transportation, elegant living quarters, and the like. In some cases, casinos even provide large bettors with their own private planes for their trips to the gambling capitals of the world.
Gambling is a popular activity in most countries of the world, and casinos are often an important part of the local economy. In the United States alone, casino revenues exceed $26 billion a year. Some casinos are owned by governments and operated as public enterprises, while others are privately owned and operated. Most states have legalized casinos, although some have banned them or restrict their operations in other ways.
In the United States, the first modern casinos opened in 1978, with the first riverboat casinos appearing in the 1980s. After that, more and more American Indian reservations opened casinos, which are exempt from state antigambling laws. In the 1990s, more and more states amended their gambling laws to permit casinos. The United States now has over 1,000 casinos.
While no one knows for sure how many people visit a casino, the American Gaming Association estimates that 51 million people—a group that includes nearly everyone in the country over age 21—visited a casino in 2002. The popularity of these facilities has prompted many cities and towns to establish themselves as casino destinations. The Las Vegas Valley is the most renowned in this regard, but there are also numerous smaller casinos throughout the country.
Some casinos focus on specific types of games, such as poker and blackjack. These are often called cardrooms and feature a variety of tables with different betting limits. Some cardrooms also have electronic tables where players bet by pushing buttons rather than using chips. Other casinos specialize in games from the Far East, including sic bo (which became popular in several European and American casinos during the 1990s), fan-tan, and pai gow. In addition to these main categories, some casinos are equipped to handle other regional games of interest, such as two-up in Australia, banca francesa in Portugal, boule in France, and kalooki in Britain. In addition to offering games, casinos are frequently outfitted with sophisticated technology that enables them to monitor and supervise their operations. For example, video cameras and computerized systems allow casinos to track the exact amount of money wagered minute by minute and warn them quickly of any anomaly.