A casino is a place where people gamble through games of chance. It may also include an array of other entertainment activities such as restaurants, stage shows, lighted fountains and shopping centers. However, it is the gambling that attracts and keeps visitors and earns casinos billions of dollars in annual profits.

Until recently many casinos were run by organized crime groups, with mob ownership resulting in regular government crackdowns and a constant threat to the licenses that allow casino businesses to operate. Real estate developers and hotel chains soon realized that they could make even more money by buying out the gangsters and running their own casinos without mob interference.

Today there are more than 1,000 casinos in the United States, with most of them concentrated in Nevada. In addition, there are hundreds of casinos worldwide. Casinos range in size from massive resorts like the Venetian in Macau to small card rooms in remote towns. They are also found in racinos, racetracks that feature video poker and other casino-type games, as well as on cruise ships, in some foreign countries, and in truck stops across the country.

Gambling is a universal human activity, and it has been present in almost every society since the beginning of recorded history. Although the precise origin of gambling is unclear, it is generally believed that some form of it was practiced in Ancient Mesopotamia, Greece and Rome, the Middle Ages, Elizabethan England and Napoleon’s France, among other places.