Casino is an establishment where people gamble money on games of chance (and sometimes skill). A casino’s built-in advantage, known as the house edge, ensures that over time it will make more money than customers. This advantage can be as low as two percent, but it adds up over millions of bets. The casino’s profit comes from this advantage and from other sources, such as a commission paid to dealers in card games or a rake taken by video poker machines.

In addition to games of chance, many casinos also feature other forms of entertainment such as musical shows and lighted fountains. They also have restaurants, shopping centers and hotels. Most of these facilities are designed to appeal to the tastes of different types of tourists, from young families to older adults. Casinos also rely on technology to monitor their gaming operations. For example, in some tables, betting chips with built-in microcircuitry interact with electronic systems that allow casinos to oversee the amounts wagered minute by minute and to quickly discover any statistical deviation from expected results.

In order to attract high rollers, casinos often offer free hotel rooms, dinners and tickets to shows. They may even provide limo service and airline tickets for the biggest spenders. Comps are awarded based on how much a player bets and how long they play. They are also influenced by a player’s overall spending habits and by how much money they win or lose.