Casino, a swanky hotel/resort complex with restaurants and entertainment, attracts millions of visitors every year. Though musical shows, lighted fountains and shopping centers help lure guests, casinos would not exist without games of chance such as blackjack, roulette, poker, craps, keno and baccarat. These games provide the billions of dollars in profits that casinos rake in every year.

Casinos are usually located in major party cities where gambling and entertainment go hand-in-hand, a combination that makes for fun vacations. In addition to the usual assortment of table and slot games, many casinos have exotic attractions such as pyramids, towers and replicas. A wide variety of casino games are available, from the well-known like baccarat and roulette to lesser-known ones such as trente et quarante and Chinese checkers.

Most casino games have a built-in advantage for the house. This advantage can be very small (less than one percent), but over the long run the millions of bets placed by patrons earns the casino enough money to cover overhead and make a profit. This extra income is known as the vig or rake and is collected by dealers at table games or the owners of video poker machines.

Originally opened in 1900, the Hippodrome in London, England was designed to be a performance center, but it has since become one of the world’s most famous casinos. Another great example of casino design is the elegant spa town of Baden-Baden, Germany, where the Casino de la Belle Epoque reflects the elegance of its surroundings with red-and-gold poker rooms and more than 130 slots.