A casino (or gambling house) is a building or room where certain types of gambling are carried out. A casino is also a place where people come to play games such as blackjack, roulette and poker. The term may be used in the sense of a regulated public gaming house or a private club for members only, but it is more often used to refer to a large, full-service establishment for gambling.

Modern casinos usually feature a wide range of games, with popular choices including slots, table games and card games like poker and blackjack. In addition, many casinos offer exotic and traditional Far Eastern games like sic bo, fan-tan and pai gow.

The concept of a casino as a place for gambling is ancient, with primitive proto-dice and even carved six-sided dice being found at archaeological sites [Source: Schwartz]. But the first modern casinos, which were essentially private clubs open only to Italian aristocrats, did not appear until the 16th century. These were known as ridotti, and their popularity led to a widespread gambling craze throughout Europe that made the establishment of a casino a natural extension of that trend.

Something about the nature of gambling encourages cheating, stealing and scamming. And the presence of huge sums of money in a casino only increases the temptation to try these things. So casino managers take a lot of precautions to prevent such incidents, starting with the use of chips that make it difficult to count money being passed back and forth. They also avoid windows and clocks in the casino, which are believed to tempt players into losing track of time and thereby their bankrolls.