The best casinos around the world offer an all-in-one experience, with top-notch hotels, spas and restaurants, live entertainment and plenty of gambling. These popular spots are like indoor amusement parks for adults that provide the thrilling feeling people often experience vicariously through casino-themed movies. But they wouldn’t exist without games of chance, which are the source of billions in profits raked in by American casinos every year. Slot machines, blackjack, roulette, craps and poker are just a few of the games that keep casino owners in the black.
A casino’s profitability is almost always guaranteed by the fact that it has a built-in advantage in all of its games that makes it statistically inevitable that it will win money in the long run. These mathematical expectancies are called house edges and variance, and they’re calculated by mathematicians who work in the field of gaming analysis.
Because of this virtual guarantee of gross profit, casinos can afford to be quite generous with their high rollers, offering them free spectacular entertainment and luxurious living quarters. They also spend a lot of money on elaborate security measures, with camera systems that offer a high-tech eye-in-the-sky view of the entire floor from catwalks overhead.
But there is a dark side to gambling, with criminals often trying to cheat, steal and scam their way into a winning hand. Something about the large amounts of cash that are handled within casinos encourages both patrons and staff to cheat, whether in collusion or on their own.