Whether your grandmother liked to take weekend bus trips with her friends to the nearest casino, or you prefer to go online for some real money action, gambling is a huge industry that has been around in one form or another since ancient times. Casinos are establishments where gamblers can wager on games of chance or skill, and many are combined with hotels, restaurants, retail shops, and other tourist attractions.
The most common casino games are card games like poker and blackjack, dice games like craps, and wheel games like roulette. Other popular games at casinos include video poker, baccarat, and slot machines. In some cases, players can place additional bets on the game that they’re playing, known as side bets. These bets add to the overall winning or losing totals, but they are not part of the main game.
Casinos use a variety of methods to prevent cheating and theft. Security employees watch over the casino floor closely, looking for blatant signs of cheating or stealing, such as palming or marking cards. Pit bosses and table managers watch over the tables with a more broader view, checking for betting patterns that might signal suspicious activity.
Casinos spend a lot of time and money on security, because they know that something about the glitz, glamour, and money associated with gambling encourages people to try to cheat, steal, or scam their way into a jackpot. To combat these problems, some casinos have separate rooms for high rollers who gamble for tens of thousands of dollars at a time. These rooms can offer lavish personal attention and complimentary items to the biggest gamblers.