According to the American Gaming Association, about 51 million people — or roughly one quarter of all Americans over age 21 — visited a casino in 2002. Casinos feature dazzling lights, upbeat music and entertainment options as well as table games, slot machines, poker rooms and more. They also offer luxurious accommodations and top-notch restaurants and bars.
The games are the main attraction at any casino, but casinos do their best to lure gamblers with a variety of other amenities. Some, like ping-pong tables, are intended to make the experience more social and fun. Others, like a roulette wheel or a poker table, are meant to create an atmosphere of excitement and suspense. Casinos often provide plenty of places to eat and drink, as well as free alcohol to encourage gamblers to keep playing.
While it might seem that a casino’s success is entirely dependent on luck, the truth is much more complicated. Every game that a casino offers has a built-in mathematical expectation of winning, which is the amount of money that the house expects to make from each wager. The house edge varies from game to game, but it’s rarely zero.
The house always wins in the end, but it takes a lot of time, effort and money to ensure that happens. That’s why casinos are often so opulent and enveloping, with a host of sights and sounds to distract players from thinking about their losses. Something about gambling seems to encourage cheating and scamming, too, so casinos spend a great deal of time on security.