Casino – A place that offers games of chance for money, with the house usually having a small advantage over the players. This may include table games, slot machines and poker rooms. The Bellagio in Las Vegas is one of the most famous casinos in the world, thanks to its stunning fountain shows and appearances in movies like Ocean’s 11.

Casinos are often designed to make people feel good, whether they’re gambling, eating, drinking, or watching a show. They use a variety of techniques to create this manufactured blissful experience, including the wafting of scented oils through ventilation systems, dazzling lights and joyful music in addition to the sound of slot machines.

There is also something about gambling that seems to encourage some people to cheat or steal their way into a jackpot, which is why casinos invest so much time, effort and money on security. Elaborate surveillance systems provide a high-tech eye-in-the-sky, and tables are fitted with microcircuitry to allow casinos to monitor the exact amounts wagered minute by minute and quickly discover any statistical deviations from expected results.

Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci are both excellent as the mafia characters in Casino, but it’s Sharon Stone who really makes the movie. She was already a big star from Basic Instinct, but here she both builds on and inverts her earlier persona as a seductive sexy hustler who can keep men at her feet for days. At just over three hours, Casino is one of the longest films that Martin Scorsese has ever directed, but the taut editing and masterful narration ensure that it doesn’t lag or run out of steam at any point.