Located in exotic locales such as Venice, Monaco, and Singapore, the world’s best casinos offer much more than gambling. With dining, entertainment and luxury accommodations, they provide an unparalleled gaming and leisure experience.
Something about the large amounts of money handled in casinos seems to encourage cheating and stealing, whether by collusion between patrons or independently. Because of this, casinos spend a lot of time and money on security. In addition to personnel dedicated to keeping an eye on the crowds, elaborate surveillance systems allow security workers in a separate room filled with banks of monitors to watch every table, change window and doorway simultaneously. Some casino games, such as slot machines, are fully automated and have no dealers, so their statistical deviations from expected results can be discovered quickly by a computer system.
Although the games of chance played in casinos typically give the house a long-term edge over players, some games do require some degree of skill. Players who possess sufficient skills to eliminate the house advantage in these games are known as “advantage players.”
Casinos have been around for centuries and continue to attract gamblers from all over the world. Some are famous for their opulence, such as the Bellagio in Las Vegas, which has become a symbol of elegance and sophistication worldwide. Other casinos are known for their high-stakes games, such as blackjack and poker. The Monte Carlo casino, which first opened in 1863, is the most renowned of them all. Its legendary dancing fountains and appearance in the movie Ocean’s 11 have helped it to gain an international reputation as a place for high-stakes gambling.