A casino is a place where people can gamble and play games of chance. Modern casinos add a variety of other amenities to draw in customers, such as restaurants, free drinks and stage shows, but gambling activities remain the primary source of profit for casino owners. Casinos are found all over the world, from lavish Las Vegas resorts to small neighborhood clubs.
Casinos employ a wide range of security measures to keep patrons safe and prevent crime. Elaborate surveillance systems give casino employees a high-tech “eye-in-the-sky” view of the entire gaming floor, which can be adjusted to focus on suspicious patrons by workers in a separate room filled with banks of security monitors. Security cameras also watch every table, window and doorway. Security personnel are trained to spot unusual behavior such as erratic betting patterns or the sudden appearance of a new player at a card game.
In addition to cameras, casinos use other tools to prevent cheating and stealing. Something about gambling (maybe the presence of large amounts of money) encourages cheaters and thieves, but casinos spend a great deal of time, effort and money on security to deter them.
Some of the biggest casinos in the world are located in Asia, where many people love to play games of chance. One such giant is the City of Dreams in Macau, which offers over 400,000 square feet of gaming space with more than 1,400 tables and slot machines. Asian casinos also feature traditional Far Eastern games, such as sic bo, fan-tan and pai gow.