A casino is a facility for certain types of gambling. Casinos are often built near or combined with hotels, resorts, restaurants, retail shops, cruise ships, and other tourist attractions. Some casinos are also known for hosting live entertainment, such as stand-up comedy, concerts, and sports.
Casino is of Italian origin; the root casa means a house. The term casino may mean a small country villa, summerhouse, or social 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 or palazzo, and were used to host civic town functions, including dancing, gambling, music listening, and sports. Examples in Italy include Villa Farnese and Villa Giulia, and in the US the Newport Casino in Newport, Rhode Island. In modern-day Italian, a casino is a brothel (also called casa chiusa, literally "closed house"), a mess (confusing situation), or a noisy environment; a gaming house is spelt casinò , with an accent. [2] [1] [3]
Not all casinos are used for gaming. The Catalina Casino, on Santa Catalina Island, California, has never been used for traditional games of chance, which were already outlawed in California by the time it was built. [4] The Copenhagen Casino was a Danish theatre which also held public meetings during the 1848 Revolution, which made Denmark a constitutional monarchy. [5]
In military and non-military usage, a casino (Spanish) or Kasino (German) is an officers' mess.
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 Ancient Mesopotamia, Greeks and Romans to Napoleon's France and Elizabethan England, 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 the Ridotto, established in Venice, Italy, in 1638 by the Great 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 local gentry. [6]
In American history, early gambling establishments were known as saloons. The creation and importance of saloons was greatly influenced by four major cities: New Orleans, St. Louis, Chicago and San 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 of Nevada, where the US's first legalized casinos were set up. In 1976 New Jersey allowed gambling in Atlantic City, now the US's second largest gambling city. [7]
Most jurisdictions worldwide have a minimum gambling age of 18 to 21. [8]
Customers gamble by playing games of chance, in some cases with an element of skill, such as craps, roulette, baccarat, blackjack, and video poker. Most games have mathematically determined odds that ensure the house has at all times an advantage over the players. This can be expressed more precisely by the notion of expected value, which is uniformly negative (from the player's perspective). This advantage is called the house edge . In games such as poker where players play against each other, the house takes a commission called the rake. Casinos sometimes give out complimentary items or comps 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]
Factors influencing gambling tendencies include sound, odour and lighting. Natasha Dow Schüll, an anthropologist at the Massachusetts 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 in Chicago, studied the impact of certain scents on gamblers, discerning that a pleasant albeit unidentifiable odor released by Las 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]
The following lists major casino markets in the world with casino revenue of over US$1 billion as published in PricewaterhouseCoopers's report on the outlook for the global casino market: [12]
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| Rank | Region | Revenue (US$M)[ out of date ] | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | 2010 Projected | 2011 Projected | ||
| 1 | United States | 57,240 | 56,500 | 58,030 |
| 2 | Asia Pacific | 21,845 | 32,305 | 41,259 |
| 3 | Europe, Middle East, Africa | 17,259 | 16,186 | 16,452 |
| 4 | Canada | 3,712 | 3,835 | 4,045 |
| 5 | Latin America | 425 | 528 | 594 |
| Total | 100,481 | 109,354 | 120,380 | |
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| Rank | Location | No. of casinos | Revenue (US$billion)[ out of date ] | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | 2010 projected | 2011 projected | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | ||||
| 1 |  Macau | 33 | 14.95 | 22.44 | 28.38 | 29 | 7.57 [13] | 10.86 | |
| 2 |  Las Vegas, Nevada | 122 | 10.25 | 9.95 | 10.30 | 11.96 | 7.8 | 13.4 [14] | |
| 3 |  Singapore | 2 | 2.12 | 2.75 | 5.48 | - | - | 1.67 | |
| 4 |  France | 189 | 3.96 | 3.91 | 3.96 | 11.46 | 10.36 | 11.48 [15] | |
| 5 | Atlantic City, New Jersey | 12 | 3.94 | 3.55 | 3.33 | 3.29 | 2.65 | 4.73 | |
| 6 |  Australia | 11 | 2.70 | 2.77 | 2.85 | 6.6 [16] | - | - | |
| 7 |  South Korea | 17 [17] | 2.40 | 2.43 | 2.51 | 8.2 | - | - | |
| 8 |  Germany | 76 | 2.07 | 2.05 | 2.08 | 11.52 | 10.52 | 6.51 [18] | |
| 9 |  South Africa | 36 [19] | 1.84 [20] | 1.78 | 2.01 | 1.78 | 1.89 | 1.34 | |
| 10 |  United Kingdom | 141 | 1.21 | 1.19 | 1.21 | 17.22 | 15.4 | 17.09 [21] | |
| 11 |  Poland | 36 [22] | 1.09 | 1.09 | 1.13 | - | - | - | |
| 12 |  Niagara Falls, Ontario | 2 | 1.10 | 1.11 | 1.20 | 4.8 | 4.27 | 2.18 [23] | |
According to Bloomberg, 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 by Las Vegas Sands Corp. at $7.4 bn. The third-biggest casino operator company (based on revenue) was Caesars Entertainment, with revenue of US$6.2 bn. [24]
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, located in Monte Carlo city, in Monaco, is a casino and a tourist attraction.
Monte Carlo Casino has been depicted in many books, including Ben Mezrich's Busting Vegas , where a group of Massachusetts 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 character Semyon Dukach. [25] Monte Carlo Casino has also been featured in multiple James Bond novels and films.
The casino is mentioned in the song "The Man Who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo" as well as the film of the same name.
Casinò di Campione is located in the tiny Italian enclave of Campione d'Italia, within Ticino, 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]
The archipelago of Malta is a particularly famous place for casinos, standing out mainly with the historic casino located at the princely residence of Dragonara. 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.
The former Portuguese colony of Macau, a special administrative region of the People's Republic of China since 1999, is a popular destination for visitors who wish to gamble. [29] This started in Portuguese times, when Macau was popular with visitors from nearby Hong Kong, where gambling was more closely regulated. The Venetian Macao is currently the largest casino in the world. Macau also surpassed Las Vegas as the largest gambling market in the world. [29]
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.
The Casino Estoril, located in the municipality of Cascais, on the Portuguese Riviera, near Lisbon, is the largest casino in Europe by capacity.
During the World War II, it was reputed to be a gathering point for spies, dispossessed royals, and wartime adventurers; it became an inspiration for Ian Fleming's James Bond 007 novel Casino Royale .
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. The Marina Bay Sands is the second most expensive standalone casino in the world, at a price of US$6.8 billion, and is among the world'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 as Las Vegas are best known for gambling; larger cities such as Chicago are not defined by their casinos in spite of the large turnover.
The Las Vegas Valley has the largest concentration of casinos in the United States. Based on revenue, Atlantic City, New Jersey, ranks second, and the Chicago region third.
Top American casino markets by revenue (2022 annual revenues): [33]
The Nevada Gaming Control Board divides Clark 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.
In Vietnam, the term "casinos" encompasses gambling activities within the country. 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 in Kien 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's closed-circuit-television system, known in the industry as the eye 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.
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 in Helsinki, Finland, for example, donates all of its profits to charity. [44] [45]
Casinos have been linked to organised crime, with early casinos in Las Vegas originally dominated by the American Mafia [46] [47] and in Macau by Triad syndicates. [48] [49]
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 or hearing protection against high noise levels, though these measures are still implemented when evaluated and determined necessary. [56]
Boyd Gaming Corporation is an American gaming and hospitality company based in Paradise, Nevada. The company continues to be run by founder Sam Boyd's family under the management of Sam's granddaughter, Marianne Boyd-Johnson, who currently serves as the company's executive chairman after her father, Bill, was appointed Chairman Emeritus in May 2023.
MGM Resorts International is an American hospitality and entertainment company. It operates resorts in Las Vegas, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Maryland, Ohio, New Jersey, Macau, Shanghai, Chengdu, Hangzhou and Sanya, including the Bellagio, Mandalay Bay, MGM Grand and Park MGM.
Gambling in Macau has been legal since the 1850s when the Portuguese government legalised the activity in the autonomous colony. Since then, Macau has become known worldwide as the "Gambling capital of the world". It is the only place in China where casino gambling is legal.
Mandalay Resort Group was an American hotel and casino operator based in Paradise, Nevada. Its major properties included Mandalay Bay, Luxor, Excalibur and Circus Circus, as well as half of the Monte Carlo. In terms of market capitalization, it was one of the largest casino operators in the world. Its stock traded on the New York Stock Exchange with the ticker symbol "CIR" and "MBG".
Las Vegas Sands Corp. is an American casino and resort company with corporate headquarters in Las Vegas, Nevada, United States. It was founded by Sheldon G. Adelson and his partners out of the Sands Hotel and Casino on the Las Vegas Strip. The Sands was demolished and redeveloped as The Venetian, opening in 1999. An adjacent resort, The Palazzo, opened in 2007. Both resorts were sold in 2022.
Tourism is a major industry in Macau. It is famous for the blend of Portuguese and Chinese cultures and its gambling industry, which includes Casino Lisboa, Macau, Sands Macau, The Venetian Macao, and Wynn Macau.
Wynn Resorts, Limited is an American publicly traded corporation based in Paradise, Nevada, that is a developer and operator of high-end hotels and casinos. It was founded in 2002 by former Mirage Resorts Chairman and CEO Steve Wynn and is now run by CEO Craig Billings. As of 2020, the company has developed six properties.
Aristocrat Leisure Limited is an Australian gambling machine manufacturer, which has its administrative and research headquarters in the Sydney suburb of North Ryde. It has marketing and development offices in South Africa, Russia, and the United States.
Cotai is a 5.2-square-kilometer (2.0 sq mi) piece of reclaimed land on the top of the Seac Pai Bay between Taipa and Coloane islands in Macau that has connected two independent islands since 2005. The name, which is a portmanteau of Coloane and Taipa, can also refer to the island formed by the reclamation. In the second sense, the Special Administrative Region of Macau now consists of the Macau Peninsula, plus Cotai Island, about a mile to the south.
The Venetian Macao is a hotel and casino resort in Macau, China owned by the American Las Vegas Sands company. The 39-story structure on Macau's Cotai Strip has 10,500,000-square-foot (980,000 m2) of floor space, and is modeled on its sister casino resort The Venetian Las Vegas. It is the largest casino in the world, the largest single structure hotel in Asia, and the tenth-largest building in the world by floor area.
The Cotai Strip is a strip, known mostly for its hotel-casinos in the central area of Cotai, Macau. The term was first coined by the Las Vegas Sands Corporation in reference to its construction of a strip.
Mobile gambling refers to playing games of chance or skill for money by using a remote device such as a tablet computer, smartphone or a mobile phone with a wireless internet connection. Over a hundred mobile casinos were operating as of December 2013, with most of the big casino operators in gambling now providing a mobile platform for their player base.
Light & Wonder, Inc., formerly Scientific Games Corporation (SG), is an American corporation that provides gambling products and services. The company is headquartered in Las Vegas, Nevada.
City of Dreams is a casino resort in Cotai, Macau, SAR of People's Republic of China. Built, owned and managed by Melco Resorts & Entertainment, the resort, also known as CoD or CoD Macau, opened on 1 June 2009. Described as a "mega-casino" by The Guardian, in 2020 City of Dreams was the third-largest casino in the world. In total the property comprises three separate casinos, four hotels, five hotel towers, around 2,270 total hotel rooms, around 30 restaurants and bars, and 175,000 square feet (16,300 m2) of retail space.
Melco International Development Limited, formerly The Macao Electric Lighting Company Limited, is a multinational investment holding company based in Central, Hong Kong. Melco International invests in casino and hospitality business and other businesses in Hong Kong, Macau, the Philippines, and Cyprus. One of the 100 oldest companies in Hong Kong, it was founded in 1910 and listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 1927. Originally an electricity supplier to Macau, around 2001 Melco International diversified into casino development and operations, building casino resorts such as Studio City Macau, City of Dreams Macau, City of Dreams Manila, and Altira Macau. Currently the major subsidiary that Melco International operates is Melco Resorts & Entertainment Limited.
The LV Strip is one of the designated Nevada Gaming Control Boards reporting areas. It consists of the Las Vegas Strip casinos and many of the surrounding casinos. The Strip earns roughly 50% of the gaming revenue from all sources for the state of Nevada.
Paul Curtis Steelman, a native of Atlantic City, New Jersey, is an American architect who is recognized as a designer of global entertainment, hospitality, and gaming architecture based in Las Vegas, Nevada, and Macau. Paul has designed buildings for the mavericks of the gaming industry, including Kirk Kerkorian, Steve Wynn, Sheldon Adelson, Francis Lui, Lawrence Ho, Tan Sri Dato' Lim Kok Thay, Tan Sri Dr Chen Lip Keong, Prince Albert of Monaco, Bob Stupak, Frank Modica, Phil Satre, Derek Stevens and Stanley Ho.
Wynn Palace is the second luxury integrated resort from international resort developer Wynn Resorts in the Macau Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China, following the launch of Wynn Macau. Located in Cotai, it features a 28-story luxury hotel with 1,706 rooms, suites and villas, meeting facilities, over 9,800 square metres (106,000 sq ft) of luxury retail, 13 casual and fine dining restaurants, Macau's largest spa, a salon, a pool and approximately 39,400 square metres (424,000 sq ft) of casino space. The resort also features a variety of entertainment experiences, including the 3.2-hectare (8-acre) Performance Lake with a choreographed display of water, music and light, the unique SkyCab, spectacular, large-scale floral displays by renowned designer Preston Bailey and an extensive collection of art works by some of the world's leading artists.
Lawrence Ho Yau-lung is a Canadian businessman. Starting his career as an investment banker at Jardine Fleming and Citibank, in 2001 he took over operations at Melco International. Later named chairman and CEO, Ho refocused the company on leisure and entertainment, building and operating casino resorts in Macau, the Philippines, and Cyprus. With an estimated net worth of $2.2 billion, he was named "Asia’s Best CEO" at the Asian Excellence Awards for the seventh time in 2018.
The Parisian Macao is a casino resort on the Cotai Strip in Cotai, Macau, China owned by Las Vegas Sands, which features a half-scale Eiffel Tower as one of its landmarks. It was originally expected to be operational in late 2015, with that later changed to August 2016. The hotel officially opened on 13 September 2016.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link), Retrieved February 9, 2013.
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