A casino is an establishment for certain types of gambling. These casinos are often combined with hotels, resorts, restaurants, retail shops and/or cruise ships. They usually have a large area devoted to gaming tables and slot machines and may offer other forms of entertainment as well.

Gambling has been a part of human culture for millennia. Evidence of dice games dates back to 2300 BC, and card games appeared shortly after. Modern casino gambling began in Atlantic City in 1978, and spread throughout the world in the 1980s. During this time, the first casinos began to appear on American Indian reservations, where they were exempt from state anti-gambling laws.

Today, most casinos feature table games like baccarat (a favorite of James Bond), chemin de fer (often called “American blackjack”), roulette and poker, as well as hundreds of slot machines. Many of these machines have multi-million dollar jackpots. Casinos also host various types of tournaments for both amateur and professional players.

Some casinos are famous for their lavish decor and dazzling architecture. For instance, the Venetian Macau is known as east Asia’s version of Vegas with its gondola-filled canals and faux-Venetian façade. Other spectacular casinos include the MGM Grand on the Las Vegas Strip, which is adorned with 60 large plasma TVs for sports betting and was featured in the 2001 film Ocean’s Eleven. Other world-class casinos can be found in Monte Carlo, Monaco; Venice, Italy; Corfu, Greece; and Baden-Baden and Bad Homburg von der Hohe, Germany.