A casino is a place where gambling activities take place. Modern casinos add a wide variety of amenities and entertainment to attract customers, but they would not exist without the games that make them profitable. Slot machines, blackjack, roulette, craps and keno generate the billions of dollars in profits that casino owners rake in each year.
Casinos often employ expert mathematicians to calculate the house edge and variance of each game. These experts, who work as gaming mathematicians, use sophisticated computer programs to analyze the results of a game and warn casino managers when statistical deviations from expected outcomes occur.
According to a 2002 survey of people who gambled, the most popular casino games are slots and table games. Card games, such as poker and blackjack, accounted for 30% of the favorite casino activities; whereas bingo, keno and gambling on sporting/racing events each garnered less than 5%.
Casinos are a source of revenue for many communities. The tax revenue they bring in helps local governments to fund community services and infrastructure projects, and avoid raising taxes or cutting other essential spending. In addition, casino employment provides jobs to a large number of people in the local area. Unfortunately, casino revenues also encourage some people to cheat and steal in order to win money. As a result, casinos spend a lot of time, effort and money on security. These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word ‘casino.’ Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors.