Acasino is a facility forgambling. Casinos are often built near or combined with hotels, resorts, restaurants, retail shops, cruise ships, and other tourist attractions. Some casinos also host live entertainment, such as stand-up comedy, concerts, and sports.
Etymology and usage
Casino is ofItalian origin; the rootcasa means a house. The termcasino may mean a small countryvilla,summerhouse, orsocial club.[1] During the 19th century,casino came to include other public buildings where pleasurable activities took place; such edifices were usually built on the grounds of a larger Italian villa orpalazzo, and were used to host civic town functions, including dancing, gambling, music listening, and sports. Examples in Italy includeVilla Farnese andVilla Giulia, and in the US theNewport Casino inNewport, Rhode Island. In modern-day Italian, acasino is a brothel (also calledcasa chiusa, literally "closed house"), a mess (confusing situation), or a noisy environment; a gaming house is speltcasinò, with anaccent.[2][1][3]
The precise origin of gambling is unknown. It is generally believed that gambling in some form or another has been seen in almost every society in history. From AncientMesopotamia,Greeks and Romans to Napoleon'sFrance and ElizabethanEngland, much of history is filled with stories of entertainment based on games of chance.
The first known European gambling house, not called a casino although meeting the modern definition, was theRidotto, established inVenice, Italy, in 1638 by theGreat Council of Venice to provide controlled gambling during the carnival season. It was closed in 1774 as the city government felt it was impoverishing the localgentry.[6]
In American history, early gambling establishments were known assaloons. The creation and importance of saloons was greatly influenced by four major cities:New Orleans,St. Louis,Chicago andSan Francisco. It was in the saloons that travelers could find people to talk to, drink with, and often gamble with. During the early 20th century in the US, gambling was outlawed by state legislation. However, in 1931, gambling was legalized throughout the state ofNevada, where the US's first legalized casinos were set up. In 1976New Jersey allowed gambling inAtlantic City, now the US's second largest gambling city.[7]
Most jurisdictions worldwide have a minimumgambling age of 18 to 21.[8]
Customers gamble by playinggames of chance, in some cases with an element of skill, such ascraps,roulette,baccarat,blackjack, andvideo poker. Most games have mathematically determinedodds that ensure the house has at all times an advantage over the players. This can be expressed more precisely by the notion ofexpected value, which is uniformly negative (from the player's perspective). This advantage is called thehouse edge. In games such aspoker where players play against each other, the house takes a commission called therake. Casinos sometimes give out complimentary items orcomps to gamblers.
Payout is the percentage of funds ("winnings") returned to players.
Casinos in the United States say that a player staking money won from the casino is "playing with the house's money".
Video lottery machines (slot machines) have become one of the most popular forms of gambling in casinos. As of 2011[update] investigative reports have started calling into question whether the modern-day slot-machine is addictive.[9]
Design
Factors influencing gambling tendencies include sound, odour and lighting. Natasha Dow Schüll, an anthropologist at theMassachusetts Institute of Technology, highlights the decision of the audio directors at Silicon Gaming to make its slot machines resonate in "the universally pleasant tone of C, sampling existing casino soundscapes to create a sound that would please but not clash".[10]
Alan Hirsch, founder of the Smell & Taste Treatment and Research Foundation inChicago, studied the impact of certain scents on gamblers, discerning that a pleasant albeit unidentifiable odor released byLas Vegas slot machines generated about 50% more in daily revenue. He suggested that the scent acted as an aphrodisiac, causing a more aggressive form of gambling.[11]
Markets
The following lists major casino markets in the world with casino revenue of over US$1 billion as published inPricewaterhouseCoopers's report onthe outlook for the global casino market:[12]
According toBloomberg, accumulated revenue of the biggest casino operator companies worldwide amounted to almost US$55 billion in 2011.SJM Holdings Ltd. was the leading company in this field, earning $9.7 bn in 2011, followed byLas Vegas Sands Corp. at $7.4 bn. The third-biggest casino operator company (based on revenue) wasCaesars Entertainment, with revenue of US$6.2 bn.[24]
Significant sites
While there are casinos in many places, a few places have become well known specifically for gambling. Perhaps the place almost defined by its casino is Monte Carlo, but other places are known as gambling centers.
Monte Carlo Casino has been depicted in many books, includingBen Mezrich'sBusting Vegas, where a group ofMassachusetts Institute of Technology students beat the casino out of nearly $1 million. This book is based on real people and events; however, many of those events are contested by main characterSemyon Dukach.[25] Monte Carlo Casino has also been featured in multipleJames Bond novels and films.
Casinò di Campione is located in the tinyItalian enclave ofCampione d'Italia, withinTicino, Switzerland. The casino was founded in 1917 as a site to gather information from foreign diplomats during the First World War. Today it is owned by the Italian government, and operated by the municipality. With gambling laws being less strict than in Italy and Switzerland, it is among the most popular gambling destination besides Monte Carlo. The income from the casino is sufficient for the operation of Campione without the imposition of taxes, or obtaining of other revenue.[26] In 2007, the casino moved into new premises of more than 55,000 square metres (590,000 sq ft), making it the largest casino in Europe.[27] The new casino was built alongside the old one, which dated from 1933 and has since been demolished.[26][28]
Malta
The archipelago ofMalta is a particularly famous place for casinos, standing out mainly with the historic casino located at the princely residence ofDragonara. Dragonara Palace was built in 1870. Its name comes from the Dragonara Point, the peninsula where it is built. On 15 July 1964, the palace opened as a casino.
Machine-based gaming is only permitted in land-based casinos, restaurants, bars and gaming halls, and only subject to a licence. Online slots are, at the moment, only permitted if they are operated under a Schleswig-Holstein licence. AWPs are governed by federal law – the Trade Regulation Act and the Gaming Ordinance.
There are four legal gaming zones in Russia: "Siberian Coin" (Altay), "Yantarnaya" (Kaliningrad region), "Azov-city" (Rostov region) and "Primorie" (Primorie region).
Singapore is an up-and-coming destination for visitors wanting to gamble, although there are currently only two casinos (both foreign owned), in Singapore. TheMarina Bay Sands is the second most expensive standalone casino in the world, at a price of US$6.8 billion, and is among theworld's ten most expensive buildings.[30][31]
With currently over 1,000 casinos, the United States has the largest number of casinos in the world. The number continues to grow steadily as more states seek to legalize casinos. 40 states now[when?] have some form of casino gambling. Interstate competition, such as gaining tourism, has been a driving factor to continuous legalization.[32] Relatively small places such asLas Vegas are best known for gambling; larger cities such asChicago are not defined by their casinos in spite of the large turnover.
TheNevada Gaming Control Board dividesClark County, which is coextensive with the Las Vegas metropolitan area, into seven market regions for reporting purposes.
Native American gaming has been responsible for a rise in the number of casinos outside of Las Vegas and Atlantic City.
Vietnam
InVietnam, the term "casinos" encompasses gambling activities within thecountry. Unofficially defined, a "casino" typically denotes a well-established and professional gambling establishment that is generally lawful but exclusively caters to foreign players. On the other hand, "gambling houses" or "gambling dens" are smaller, illicit gambling venues.[34][35]
As of 2022, Vietnam has 9 operating casinos,[36] including: Đồ Sơn casino (Hải Phòng), Lợi Lai casino, Hoàng Gia casino (Quảng Ninh), Hồng Vận casino (Quảng Ninh), Lào Cai casino (Lào Cai), Silver Shores casino (Đà Nẵng), Hồ Tràm casino (Bà Rịa – Vũng Tàu), Nam Hội An casino (Quảng Nam), Phú Quốc casino inKien Giang.[37][38][39]
In a survey conducted by the Vietnamese Institute for Sustainable Regional Development and released on September 30, 2015, it was found that 71% of the respondents held the belief that allowing Vietnamese individuals to access casinos would result in an increase in the number of players. Furthermore, 47.4% of the participants expressed the view that engaging in rewarding recreational activities has a positive impact on job opportunities for residents. Additionally, 46.2% of the respondents believed that such activities contribute positively to Vietnam's ability to attract investments.[40]
Given the large amounts of currency handled within a casino, both patrons and staff may be tempted to cheat and steal, in collusion or independently; most casinos have security measures to prevent this.Security cameras located throughout the casino are the most basic measure.
Modern casino security is usually divided between a physical security force and a specialized surveillance department. The physical security force usually patrols the casino and responds to calls for assistance and reports of suspicious or definite criminal activity. A specialized surveillance department operates the casino'sclosed-circuit-television system, known in the industry as theeye in the sky. Both of these specialized casino security departments work very closely with each other to ensure the safety of both guests and the casino's assets, and have been quite successful in preventing crime.[41] Some casinos also have catwalks in the ceiling above the casino floor, which allow surveillance personnel to look directly down, through one way glass, on the activities at the tables and slot machines.
When it opened in 1989,The Mirage was the first casino to use cameras full-time on all table games.[42]
In addition to cameras and other technological measures, casinos also enforce security through rules of conduct and behavior; for example, players at card games are required to keep the cards they are holding in their hands visible at all times.
Business practices
Over the past few decades, casinos have developed many different marketing techniques for attracting and maintaining loyal patrons. Many casinos use a loyalty rewards program used to track players' spending habits and target their patrons more effectively, by sending mailings with free slot play and other promotions.[43]Casino Helsinki inHelsinki, Finland, for example, donates all of its profits to charity.[44][45]
According to some police reports, local incidence of reported crime often doubles or triples within three years of a casino's opening.[50] In a 2004 report by the US Department of Justice, researchers interviewed people who had been arrested in Las Vegas and Des Moines and found that the percentage of problem or pathological gamblers among the arrestees was three to five times higher than in the general population.[51]
It has been said that economic studies showing a positive relationship between casinos and crime usually fail to consider the visiting population: they count crimes committed by visitors but do not count visitors in the population measure, which overstates the crime rate. Part of the reason this methodology is used, despite the overstatement, is that reliable data on tourist count are often not available.[52]
Casinos are subject to specific regulations for worker safety, as casino employees are both at greater risk for cancers resulting from exposure to second-hand tobacco smoke[53][54] and musculoskeletal injuries from repetitive motions while running table games over many hours.[55] These are not the extent of the hazards casino workers may be exposed to, but every location is different. Most casinos do not meet the requirements for certain protective measures, such as protection against airborne metal dusts from coins orhearing protection against high noise levels, though these measures are still implemented when evaluated and determined necessary.[56]
^Calcagno, Peter T.; Walker, Douglas M.; Jackson, John D. (January 2010). "Determinants of the probability and timing of commercial casino legalization in the United States".Public Choice.142 (1–2):69–90.doi:10.1007/s11127-009-9475-2.S2CID153403197.
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