A casino, or gaming house, is a building or large room equipped with gambling devices such as blackjack tables, roulette wheels and slot machines. In some countries, casinos are licensed and regulated by government authorities. Many casinos offer a variety of games, including poker, roulette, craps, and baccarat. Other casinos specialise in one or more particular games. The WinStar World Casino and Resort in Oklahoma City, for instance, is known for its Texas Hold ‘Em tournaments and offers a variety of slot machines and table games.
Because most casino games involve a degree of chance, the house always has a mathematical advantage over players; this is known as the expected value of a game (or its inverse, the house edge). In games where skill is involved, such as standard poker, the house makes its profit by taking a commission, sometimes called the rake, from each pot or by charging an hourly fee for playing time.
Because of the large amount of money handled within a casino, both patrons and staff may be tempted to cheat or steal, in collusion with others or individually; therefore, most casinos employ a number of security measures. These range from the obvious, such as security cameras located throughout the facility, to the sophisticated, such as chip tracking in which betting chips are wired to electronic systems that allow casinos to monitor their exact amounts wagered minute by minute and quickly discover any statistical deviations.