Casino

Originally a Casino was a small villa, summerhouse or pavilion built for pleasure, usually in the grounds of a larger Italian villa or palazzo. There are examples of such casinos at Villa Giulia and Villa Farnese. During the 19th century the term casino came to include other more public buildings where pleasurable activities, chiefly gambling, took place.

Today a casino is a building that accommodates gambling. Customers may gamble by participating in games (e.g., craps, roulette - for more see casino games). Game rules usually have mathematically determined odds built in that ensure the house retains a minimum percentage of the money spent overall. Some statistically even games may take a commission or tax on bets customers make against each other (e.g., poker, pai gow, baccarat, sports betting). Casinos are often combined with or near hotels, restaurants and other vacation attractions to encourage long stays.

Famous casinos are located in:

Heavy concentrations of casinos in the United States are in Las Vegas, Nevada, Reno, Nevada, and Atlantic City, New Jersey. There are also numerous casinos throughout the country run by Native American tribes.

Partial list of casinos:

Estoril Casino, near Lisbon, Portugal
Casino Lisboa, in Macau, People's Republic of China
Foxwoods Resort Casino, in Connecticut, USA ([1])

with a 315,000 square foot gamling space in a 4.7 million square foot resort is allegedly the largest in the world (as of 2004).

See also: Casino Nights, Indian gaming, List of casinos

Casino (movie) is a 1995 film directed by Martin Scorsese.

Cassino (spelled with two "ss") is an 18th century Italian card game from the Scopa family.

Casino is a chain of supermarkets in France, which also owns part of Laurus in the Netherlands, see List of supermarkets.