A casino is a gambling establishment that offers players the chance to gamble on various games of chance. These establishments offer a wide variety of services and amenities to their customers, including food and drink, entertainment, and hotel accommodations. Some casinos also feature spas and other luxury facilities. The word casino has many meanings, but it is generally understood to mean a public place where gambling is allowed.

Beneath the flashing lights, free drinks and glitzy giveaways, however, casinos stand on a bedrock of mathematics engineered to slowly bleed their patrons of cash. Despite this, mathematically inclined minds have long tried to turn the tables on the house by using their knowledge of probability and game theory to exploit weaknesses in this rigged system.

Because large amounts of money are handled within a casino, cheating and theft by patrons and staff are common. To counter these dangers, casinos spend a great deal of time, effort and money on security. The most basic measure is the use of surveillance cameras throughout the facility.

For a more personal touch, some casinos employ staff to watch over certain suspicious patrons, and some even have a separate room filled with banks of security monitors where personnel can adjust their focus as needed. In addition, more sophisticated technology has been used to supervise individual casino games themselves. For example, in a system called “chip tracking,” betting chips with built-in microcircuitry enable casinos to oversee the amount of money wagered minute by minute and warn players quickly about any anomalies; and roulette wheels are electronically monitored regularly to discover any statistical deviation from their expected results.