A casino is a building where people can play games of chance. The name of the place is usually derived from a Latin word meaning “place of fish.” Some casinos are very large and impressive. They have rooms for gambling, high-end restaurants, and other amenities.
A lot of money passes through the doors of a casino every day. This is why security is so important. Casinos have many surveillance cameras to monitor patrons and the games themselves. There are also routine checks of tables by higher-up personnel. Casino staff members can easily spot blatant cheating or stealing by following certain patterns in the way patrons interact with the games and their surroundings.
Something about the atmosphere in a casino – the noise, the bright lights, the excitement – encourages patrons to gamble. The billions of dollars raked in by the biggest casinos in the world are not due to pure luck, but to the mathematically calculated advantage that the house has over players, whether in games of skill like poker and blackjack or of chance like slot machines, roulette and craps. The advantages are not always visible, but they are there. Casinos spend a lot of time, effort and money on security to discourage criminal activity. The security measures go beyond video cameras and staff to include padded walls, fire barriers, and even catwalks above the gaming floor to allow surveillance personnel to look directly down, through one-way glass, on activities at table games and slot machines.