A casino is a gambling establishment that sells gambling products such as slot machines, keno and video poker. It also offers table games like blackjack, baccarat, craps and roulette. Successful casinos earn billions of dollars for the companies, investors, and Native American tribes that run them. In addition to their gambling products, casinos offer other entertainment and retail services. They may feature musical shows, lighted fountains and shopping centers. In the United States, they are often located at or near racetracks to create racinos (racetrack-based casinos).

The word casino is derived from the Italian casona, meaning “cottage” or “country house.” The early modern Europeans used the term to refer to an enclosed public room for gaming and other leisure activities. By the second half of the 19th century, the phrase had come to refer specifically to a collection of gambling rooms.

Modern casinos employ a wide range of technological surveillance and security measures to protect patrons and assets. In addition to cameras, they use computerized systems to monitor betting chips minute by minute and warn them of any statistical deviation from expected results; roulette wheels are electronically monitored regularly to discover any anomalies.

Despite their sophisticated security measures, casinos are essentially businesses that depend on customer spending and repeat business. For this reason, they focus on providing perks to attract and reward high-volume customers, including discounted travel packages, free show tickets and other perks. Moreover, they try to keep their profits as low as possible and limit losses by controlling the number of people they allow on their premises at any one time.