A casino is a facility for certain types of gambling. Some casinos are combined with hotels, resorts, restaurants, retail shops or cruise ships. In addition to gambling, many casinos host live entertainment events such as concerts and stand-up comedy. Almost all casinos feature slot machines and table games. Some also offer video poker and other electronic gaming machines.

A modern casino usually has a theme and is designed to appeal to a specific audience. This is done to increase its profitability by drawing in the types of customers it hopes will visit. Casinos also have security measures to prevent patrons from cheating or stealing, either in collusion with other players or employees. Most casinos have video surveillance systems and other technological devices to monitor activity.

The most profitable casino games are those that require little or no skill and are purely chance-driven. The most common of these are slots, which use varying bands of colored shapes to roll on reels (real or virtual) and yield a predetermined amount when a pattern is struck. Table games such as blackjack and roulette also generate substantial profits for casinos.

While gambling probably existed long before written history, the casino as a place to find various forms of it under one roof did not develop until the 16th century during a fervor for gambling that spread from Europe to the Americas. At the time, aristocrats held private parties called ridotti in their homes where they would gamble, often in secret.