A casino is a place where people gamble on games of chance. It adds a degree of glitz and glamour to the gambling experience by offering stage shows, free drinks and luxurious accommodations. The casinos also offer a variety of other entertainment, such as shopping and restaurants. Some are also famous for their dance fountains or art installations. The Bellagio, for example, is renowned for its dancing fountains and is also known as a film location for the movie Ocean’s 11.
The casino business has a strong customer-service focus. They want to draw as many visitors as possible, so they offer comps to encourage gamblers to spend more money and to reward those who do. These can include free hotel rooms, discounted meals or show tickets. During the 1970s, Las Vegas casinos gave away a lot of stuff in order to attract gamblers and boost revenue.
Gambling in one form or another has been a part of human culture for millennia. The first casino was probably a building in which players could play games of chance with a bookie, or it may have been a private club whose members met for card games and other social activities. The present-day casino builds on this history by providing a variety of games and adding the drama of a large venue with stage shows and lavish scenery.
Modern casinos have high-tech surveillance systems that allow security workers to watch each table, window and doorway at once. They can even zoom in on specific patrons. These systems are designed to catch cheaters, whether they be players trying to mark or palm cards or people who try to steal chips from other tables. A casino’s security workers can also track the activity of individual players from their desks in a room filled with banked screens.
Most casino employees have a strong customer-service orientation and work hard to provide an entertaining and rewarding experience for casino patrons. They are also trained to spot problem gamblers, and they know that their addictions can devastate a family’s financial health. They also understand that they can help the gamblers by referring them to treatment facilities and helping them find ways to control their gambling habits.
The customer base for casinos includes a broad range of people from all socioeconomic backgrounds. They also include tourists and local residents who don’t gamble but who are interested in a casino’s amenities. Among the most common customers are retirees, couples and families with children. Casinos target this audience because they have the leisure time and disposable income to afford their luxuries.
The average casino patron is a forty-six-year-old woman who lives in an upper-middle class household and makes more than $100,000 per year. She is a college-educated professional and a married woman with two children. According to Roper Reports and the U.S. Gaming Panel, these consumers generate the highest profits for casinos. They are also a major source of revenue for local economies, because they spend more than the national average on dining, entertainment and hotel stays.