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Slot machines are commonplace in casinos
This article is about casinos for gaming. For other uses, see Casino (disambiguation).

A casino is a facility that houses and accommodates certain types of gambling activities. Casinos are most commonly built near or combined with hotels, restaurants, retail shopping, cruise ships and other tourist attractions. Some casinos are known for hosting live entertainment events, such as stand-up comedy, concerts, and sporting events.

Contents

Etymology and usage

Casino da Póvoa, a Portuguese casino that opened in early 1930s

The term "Casino" is of Italian origin, the root word being "Casa" (house) and originally meant a small country villa, summerhouse or pavilion. The word changed to refer to a building built for pleasure, usually on the grounds of a larger Italian villa or palazzo. Such buildings were used to host civic town functions - including dancing, music listening and gambling.

There are examples of such casinos at Villa Giulia and Villa Farnese. In modern day Italian, this term designates a bordello (also called "casa chiusa", literally "closed house"), while the gambling house is spelled casinò with an accent.[1]

During the 19th century, the term "casino" came to include other public buildings where pleasurable activities, including gambling, and sports took place. An example of this type of building is the Newport Casino in Newport, Rhode Island.

Not all casinos were used for gaming. The Copenhagen Casino was a theatre, known for the use made of its hall for mass public meetings during the 1848 Revolution which made Denmark a constitutional monarchy. Until 1937 it was a well-known Danish theatre.[2] The Hanko Casino located in Hanko, Finland - one of that town's most conspicuous landmarks - was never used for gambling. Rather, it was a banquet hall for the Russian nobility which frequented this spa resort in the late 1800s, and is presently used as a restaurant. The so-called "Casino",[3] a famous landmark overlooking Avalon Harbor on Catalina Island, has never been used for traditional games of chance, which were already outlawed in California by the time it was built.

History of casinos

Casinos are everywhere in Macau. Pictured here are the Wynn Macau, Casino Lisboa and Grand Lisboa.

The precise origin of gambling is unknown. The Chinese recorded the first official account of the practice in 2300 B.C., but it is generally believed that activity of gambling, in some way or another, has been seen in almost every society in history. From the Ancient Greeks and Romans to Napoleon's France and Elizabethan England, much of history is filled with stories of entertainment based on the games of chance.[4]

One of the first known casinos was the Casinò di Venezia, established in Venice Italy around 1638.[5] and is still in operation.

In American history, early casinos were originally known as saloons. The creation and importance of saloons was greatly influenced by four major cities; New Orleans, St. Louis, Chicago and San Francisco. It was in the saloons that travelers could find people to talk to, drink with, and often gamble with. During the early 20th century in America, gambling became outlawed and banned by state legislation and social reformers of the time. However, in 1931, gambling was legalized throughout the state of Nevada, and Las Vegas, spawning America's first legalized casinos. In 1978, New Jersey allowed gambling in Atlantic City, now America's second largest gambling city. Other regional centers for gaming in the U.S. are Tunica Resorts, Mississippi and in the Gulf Coast region around Biloxi.

Gambling in casinos

Baccarat casino, Edmonton, Alberta

In most jurisdictions worldwide, gambling is limited to persons over the age of license (18 or 21 years of age in most of the United States and 16 to 21 in most other countries where casinos are permitted).[6]

Customers gamble by playing slot machines or other games of chance (e.g., craps, roulette, baccarat) and some skill (e.g., blackjack, poker) (for more see casino games). Games usually have mathematically-determined odds that ensure the house has at all times an advantage over the players. This can be expressed more precisely by the notion of expected value, which is uniformly negative (from the player's perspective). This advantage is called the house edge. In games such as poker where players play against each other, the house takes a commission called the rake. Casinos often give out free items, known as comps to people who are gambling. Often, in most casinos, the more money a player uses the more benefits or comps the player gets. The casino determines the comps a player shall receive based upon a formula directly related to the player's average bet, the number of hours of play, and the percentage that the casino will win on the player. Comps can range in anything from free drinks during play to penthouse suites, free airfare, limo service, and free food.[citation needed]

Payout is the percentage won by players.

Playing with house money refers to the situation where a winning player is placing bets with money that has been won from the casino.

Casinos in the United States

The Las Vegas Strip is renowned for its high concentration of casino resort hotels

Las Vegas has the largest concentration of casinos in the United States. Based on revenue Atlantic City N.J. ranks second, and the Chicago region third.

Top American Casino Markets by Revenue (2008 Annual Revenues[7]):

The Las Vegas area is reported as 5 different areas.

Indian gaming has been responsible for a rise in the number of casinos outside of Las Vegas and Atlantic City.

Macau

Macau is a popular destination for casino-bound tourists.

Security

A sign at the Thousand Islands Casino

Given the relatively large amounts of currency that are handled within a casino, the temptation exists for both patrons and staff to commit crimes, and many casinos have security measures to prevent these. The most basic level of security today consists of cameras located throughout the property operated by highly trained individuals who attempt to locate cheating and stealing by both players and employees.

Modern casino security is usually divided between a physical security force, which patrols the casino floor and responds to calls for assistance and reports of criminal and/or suspicious activities, and a specialized surveillance department, that operates the casino's closed circuit television (known in the industry as eye in the sky) system in an effort to detect any misconduct by both guests and employees alike. Both of these specialized casino security departments work very closely with each other to ensure the safety of both guests and the casino's assets[citation needed]. Some casinos also have catwalks in the ceiling above the casino floor. These catwalks allow surveillance personnel to look directly down, through one way glass, on the activities at the tables and/or slot machines.

When it opened in 1989, The Mirage was the first casino to use cameras full time on all table games.[8]

In addition to cameras and other technological measures, casinos also enforce security through rules of conduct and behavior; for example, players at card games are usually required to keep their hands visible at all times.

Crime

One area of controversy surrounding casinos is their relationship to crime rates. Many casino opponents contend that casinos contribute to crime, and some recent research supports this.[citation needed] However, economics studies that do show a positive relationship between casinos and crime usually fail to consider the visiting population at risk when they calculate the crime rate in casino areas. Such studies thus count the crimes committed by visitors, but do not count visitors in the population measure, and this overstates the crime rates in casino areas. Part of the reason this methodology is used, despite it leading to an overstatement of crime rates is that reliable data on tourist count are often not available.[9]

See also

Gallery

The gaming area in Venetian Macau

Portugal's Casino Estoril, near Lisbon, is the largest in Europe

Notes

  1. ^ "Casino". http://dictionary.oed.com/cgi/entry/50034083?single=1&query_type=word&queryword=casino&first=1&max_to_show=10. 
  2. ^ "Special catalogues in the Drama Collection". The Royal Library. http://www.kb.dk/en/nb/samling/dra/dra-specialkataloger.html. Retrieved 2007-07-09. 
  3. ^ "Avalon Casino Ballroom". Avalonball.com. http://avalonball.com/casino.asp. Retrieved 2009-06-21. 
  4. ^ "History of Casinos & Casino Jobs". Job Monkey.com. http://www.jobmonkey.com/casino/html/brief_history.html. Retrieved 2009-06-21. 
  5. ^ "Casinò di Venezia". http://www.casinovenezia.it/en/casino_storia.jsp. Retrieved 2008-05-06. 
  6. ^ Rose, Nelson (2000-06-15). "Minimum Legal Age to Place a Bet". Gaming Guru. Casino City Times. http://rose.casinocitytimes.com/articles/966.html. Retrieved 2008-04-07. 
  7. ^ American Gaming Association, accessed 13 August 2009
  8. ^ Knightly, Arnold M. (February 2007). "Blink and you'll miss him". Las Vegas Review-Journal: 1E. http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-29780604_ITM. Retrieved 2007-07-09. 
  9. ^ Walker, Douglas M. "Do Casinos Really Cause Crime?" (Jan 2008). Econ Journal Watch [1]

External links


Quotes

Up to date as of January 14, 2010
(Redirected to Casino (film) article)

From Wikiquote

Casino is a Academy Award Nominated 1995 crime drama film. Sam "Ace" Rothstein is called by the mob to oversee the day to day operation at the Tangiers Casino in Las Vegas. Nicky Santoro, an enforcer, is sent by the mob to make sure the money is skimmed off top and other mobsters and casino are kept in line.

Directed by Martin Scorsese. Written by Nicholas Pileggi.
No One Stays At The Top Forever (taglines)

Sam "Ace" Rothstein

  • When you love someone, you've gotta trust them. There's no other way. You've got to give them the key to everything that's yours. Otherwise, what's the point?
  • [About Nicky]: No matter how big a guy might be, Nicky would take him on. You beat Nicky with fists, he comes back with a bat. You beat him with a knife, he comes back with a gun. And you beat him with a gun, you better kill him, because he’ll keep comin’ back and back until one of you is dead.
  • In the casino, the cardinal rule is to keep them playing, and keep them coming back. The longer they play, the more they lose. In the end, we get it all.

Nicky Santoro

  • I think in all fairness I should explain to you exactly what it is that I do. For instance, tomorrow morning I'll get up nice and early take a walk down over to the bank and walk in and see you and um, if you don't have my money for me, I'll crack your fuckin' head wide open in front of everybody at the bank. And just about the time that I'm coming out of jail, hopefully you'll be coming out of your coma and guess what? I'll split your fuckin' head open again 'cuz i'm fuckin' stupid, I don't give a fuck about jail. That's my business. That's what I do.
  • You put my money to sleep, [and] I'll put your fuckin' brain to sleep!
  • Listen to me, Anthony. I got your head in a fuckin' vise. I'll squash your fuckin' head like a grapefruit, if you don't give me a name.
  • You know I'm tryin' to put somethin' really big together out here. You know what I'm talkin' about, huh? You know! If you're actin' like this now, how can I depend on you?
  • You know, I don't wanna bring this up but you've been treating a lot of people with a lot of disrespect, even your own wife.
  • [Talking to Sam at the Nevada desert] You said I'm bringin' heat on you?! I gotta listen to people because of your fuckin' shit?! You're ordering me out?? You'd better get your own fuckin' army, pal! You're fuckin' warned don't ever go over my fuckin' head again, you motherfucker you!
  • Peek-a-boo, you fucks you!
  • You shit-kicking, stinky horse-manure smelling motherfucker you!
  • I used to send Marino back home with a piece of what I made. Not a big piece, but what did they know? They were 1500 miles away, and I don't know anyone who can see that far.
  • Now, on top of everything else, I gotta make sure no one fucks around with the Golden Jew.
  • [To Sam]You Motherfucker you!!
  • If you had any guts, you'd be stealing for a living. (To a blackjack dealer)

External links

Wikipedia
Wikipedia has an article about:

Travel guide

Up to date as of January 14, 2010

From Wikitravel

Casino is a city in the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales.

Underetand

A rural service town, pitches itself as the beef capital of Australia.

Get in

Casino lies inland from Ballina and Lismore, and well off the main Brisbane to Sydney road routes.

Countrylink [http:/www.countrylink.info] services Casino, with trains between Sydney and Brisbane stopping there twice daily in each direction. It is a major transfer point to coach services to the Northern Rivers and to the Gold Coast.

  • Beef week.

Get out

The daily coach trip to Byron Bay is an option for vegetarians to Get out.

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1911 encyclopedia

Up to date as of January 14, 2010

From LoveToKnow 1911

CASINO (diminutive of casa, a house), the Italian name for a pleasure-house in a garden, which has been extended to a place of public amusement at pleasure resorts, in which concerts, theatrical performances and public balls are given, and which usually contains a café-restaurant and gaming saloons. "Casino" as an architectural term is still employed in France, and the subject is given in competitive programmes in the French schools of design. In the ,8th century in England many Italian examples were built in the parks of country mansions, and Sir William Chambers in his treatise on civil architecture publishes plates of the casinos he had built at Marino, near Dublin, Wilton near Salisbury, and Birdshall, Yorkshire.

Casino or Cassino is also the name given to a game of cards of obscure origin, played with a full whist-pack. The object is to take as many cards as possible, particularly such as have special value. It may be played by two, three or four persons, partners sitting opposite one another. The player at the dealer's right is called the pony (pone), the one at his left the eldest hand. The dealer (selected by the cut of the lowest card) deals four cards to each player by twos and also, just before dealing to himself, four to the table, face upwards. The eldest hand begins the game by playing a card in one of three ways. Either he may take one of the exposed cards on the table by matching it with one from his own hand; or he may put one of his cards upon one of the table hand and call the sum of the pips (called building); or thirdly, failing to do either of these things, he must trail, i.e. lay a card face upwards on the table beside the exposed cards, and the player at his left then plays in his turn. When each player has played out all four of his cards the dealer deals four more all round, and the game proceeds until the pack is exhausted. The game either (1) ends at this juncture, the player having secured the most points winning; or (2) the side or player first securing 21 points wins; or (3) the points secured in a given number of deals may determine the winner. The points and their respective values are as follows : - Big (or Great) Casino (ten of diamonds), 2; Little Casino (deuce of spades), 1; Cards (greatest number), 3; Spades (greatest number), 1; Aces, 1 each or 4 together; Sweeps, 1 each. Thus, without sweeps, the maximum points in one deal are i i. A sweep is a play that clears the table of all exposed cards. The game then proceeds by the next player placing a card on the table face upwards.

"Building," referred to above, is done as follows. Should a 3 lie exposed on the table, a player may place a 4 upon it, saying, "I build a 7," and, if it is not disturbed before his next turn, he may then take the two cards with another 7 from his hand. It follows that no combination may be built unless the builder holds the proper card in his hand. But a build may be increased. Thus, in the case cited above, another player may put a 2 upon the two cards which make 7 and say, "I build 9," in which case the original builder loses control of the build unless he also holds a 9 in his hand or can himself increase the build again; for instance, adding an ace and calling to. In the old way of playing the ace counted 1, the deuce 2, and so on as at whist, excepting that all court cards counted to. But in the popular variation called Royal Casino, now almost universally played, the ace counts either I or 14, the king 13, the queen 12 and the knave t t. In this manner the opportunities for simple and increased building are greatly multiplied, resulting in a much livelier game.

If a player has made a build he must take it in on his next play, unless he can take some other card. He cannot have two builds on the table at the same time, nor increase another build if he already has one of his own. Double Builds cannot be increased, e.g. if a player combines a 3 and 4 lying on the table and places a 7 from his hand upon them, saying, "I build sevens," this build can be taken only with a 7, and cannot be built upon further. Of course in the case cited the builder must still have another 7 in his hand. In playing partners each may take in the other's builds, or may build to a card that has been declared by his partner; e.g. if his partner has built an 8 that has been captured by an opponent, he may build another 8 with a card from his own hand to the 8 that he knows to be in his partner's hand, even though he has no 8 himself. In trailing, i.e. laying down a card without matching or building, one usually plays small cards, avoiding aces and (if Big and Little Casino have not yet been played). tens and deuces, as well as any cards one has reason to think will be of service to the enemy. High cards are usually played last, as they are stronger in taking combinations. Such rules are, however, quite general, each situation calling for s p ecial treatment. In the last round all cards remaining on the table become the property of the player taking the last trick. A good memory and keen powers of observation are essential in playing this game.

In Twenty-One-Point Casino nothing is scored until the end of the deal. A second or third deal is usually necessary before one side scores the requisite 21. In the final deal each side keeps a mental count of the points made, and as soon as 21 are scored the game is claimed and the points shown. But if, when added to those already scored in previous deals, they make more or less than 21, the claimant loses the game. In counting out cards count first, followed by spades, Big Casino, Little Casino, aces and sweeps, in that order.

Spade Casino is a variation in which the usual II points count as in the regular game, and, in addition, each spade counts t, excepting the knave of spades, which counts 2, making 24 points in all. These are scored on a cribbage-board, each point being marked as it is made. The game is for 61 points, or once round the board and into the game-hole.


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This article uses material from the "Casino" article on the Gaming wiki at Wikia and is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike License.







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