Whether you love to hit the slots, lay down some chips on a blackjack table or throw dice at craps, casinos are the perfect place to satisfy your gambling needs. Despite their flashy lights, musical shows, shopping centers and elaborate themes, casinos would not exist without the billions of dollars in profits generated by games of chance like slot machines, blackjack, poker and roulette.

While something about casinos seems to encourage cheating, stealing and scamming in order to beat the odds, casinos invest a large amount of time, effort and money on security. Many casinos even have catwalks that allow surveillance personnel to look directly down, through one way glass, on the activities at tables and slot machines from above.

Casinos typically generate their profits by charging players a commission, known as a rake, on their betting activity. They also calculate the house edge and variance for each of their games, which helps them determine how much cash they need in the bank to meet their profit targets. Casinos employ mathematicians and computer programmers to perform these calculations for them.

Casinos reward loyal customers with free goods and services, such as hotel rooms, meals and show tickets. You can get comped for your play by asking a casino employee, but be warned that it may be against company policy or could even cost them their job. A better option is to ask a server at a restaurant, who probably knows where the “hot” machines are.