What is a Casino?
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A casino is a building that offers gambling-related activities. They are often located near or combined with hotels, restaurants, retail shops, and cruise ships. Some casinos are also known for hosting live entertainment, such as stand-up comedy or concerts. They can also offer a variety of gambling-related games, such as blackjack, poker, roulette, and slot machines.
Despite what you might see on the television show Casino or in the movie Ocean’s 11, not everyone who visits a casino is a high roller. In fact, the average person visiting a casino is likely to lose money. Nevertheless, the gambling industry is a profitable business and casinos are booming around the world.
The first casinos were small rooms for card games and other social gatherings. As people began to travel more and gamble, the need for larger facilities became apparent. Some states legalized casinos to attract tourists and business. Today, there are more than 1,000 casinos worldwide. Some are massive mega-casinos and others are much smaller, but all of them have one thing in common: the chance to win big money.
Casinos make billions of dollars each year for the corporations, investors and Native American tribes that own them. In addition, state and local governments reap significant tax revenues from casinos. Despite these benefits, some economists believe that casino gambling reduces overall spending in a community and even hurts property values. Others argue that compulsive gambling contributes to social problems, and that the money spent treating problem gambling is far greater than any revenue generated by the casino.
Because of their enormous profits, casinos concentrate on attracting the highest-spending patrons. They give these gamblers special perks such as free or discounted hotel rooms, meals, shows, and transportation. They also create a separate environment for high-stakes gamblers where the stakes can be in the tens of thousands of dollars.
Many of these perks are known as comps. Although the word is often associated with gambling, a comp is any free good or service that is given to a customer in exchange for some type of action, such as playing a game. The word “commis” is derived from the Latin word for “given freely.”