A casino is a building or room where people play games of chance or skill. These games may be supervised by a live dealer, or they may be machine-based. Casino games include craps, roulette, baccarat, and blackjack as well as poker variants such as Caribbean stud and chemin de fer (better known in the US as trente et quarante).

Casino gambling earns billions of dollars each year for the casinos themselves, the corporations that own and operate them, investors, and even Native American tribes. It also generates negative economic impacts, including a shift in spending from other forms of entertainment to gambling; increased crime, addiction, and compulsive gambling; and lost productivity among casino patrons.

Something about gambling (perhaps the presence of large amounts of money) seems to encourage people to cheat or steal, which is why casinos spend a great deal of time and money on security. Besides armed guards, they have elaborate systems that can monitor every table, window, and doorway with cameras that are adjusted by workers in a control room. The cameras are often adorned with a bright red color, which is believed to distract patrons from their actions and make it harder for them to read body language.

The casinos themselves make money by imposing an advantage on players, called the house edge. This edge can be as low as two percent, but it adds up over the millions of bets placed in a single day. It can be offset to some extent by offering complimentary items or by charging a commission, known as the rake, on certain games.