A casino is an establishment offering a variety of gambling activities. In the modern sense of the word, it includes places like Las Vegas and Atlantic City as well as gaming facilities on Native American reservations and in other countries. These places often feature restaurants, theaters and other live entertainment as well as gambling. They may also offer hotel services and other luxury amenities. Some casinos are exclusively dedicated to one or more particular types of gambling, such as slot machines or blackjack.

A large portion of a casino’s profits come from its gambling games. Each game has a built in mathematical advantage for the house, which is known as its expected value or edge. This advantage can be very small, as low as two percent, but it is enough to make the casinos profitable. In addition, casinos charge a fee to gamblers for the use of their tables and other amenities. This fee is sometimes called the vig or rake.

To maximize profits, casinos often target high rollers. These are patrons who spend a great deal of money on gambling, usually in the tens of thousands of dollars. To entice them, casinos often give such people complimentary items worth much more than the amount of their bets. This type of incentive is often called a comp. Despite their enticements, it is important to note that most studies show that the net effect of casinos on local economies is negative. This is because the money spent on compulsive gambling by patrons who are unable to control their spending shifts resources away from other forms of local entertainment.