Casino Security

Something about casinos (maybe the large amount of money in play) encourages cheating and stealing, whether by patrons or staff. Because of this, casinos spend a lot of time and money on security. They may also have special measures to prevent gambling addiction. They usually have clocks removed from the casino floor so that patrons lose track of time and are less likely to gamble for long periods of time. They might also prohibit dealers from wearing watches. Casinos have elaborate surveillance systems to keep tabs on patrons. For example, cameras in the ceiling monitor every table and window, and can be adjusted by casino workers to focus on suspicious patrons from a separate room filled with banks of video monitors. They can also watch slot machines and their payouts, which are determined randomly by the chips inside the machines.

The house edge is the statistical advantage that a casino has over a player in a game. It can be expressed more precisely as the expected value of a bet, which is uniformly negative from the player’s perspective. Casinos ensure that they make a profit by accepting bets that exceed their cost of operations, and by giving out complimentary goods or services to “good” players. These inducements may include free hotel rooms, show tickets, food, drinks and even limo service and airline tickets.

After the healthy returns of Goodfellas, Scorsese was ready to reteam mob drama with a casino movie. He signed up De Niro and Joe Pesci to star in the film, which is both a mob epic and a gritty portrait of the gambling world.