Casino is an epic story about the corruption that swept through Las Vegas. Martin Scorsese takes a brutal approach with the violence and murder scenes in this movie, but he uses them to accurately portray what really happened during that time. He lays bare the intricate web of organized crime that was centered in Vegas with tendrils touching politicians, Teamsters unions and mob families from the Midwest. Casino also exposes the many mobster-owned casinos that were minting money like crazy.

As a result of this, casinos became a magnet for organized crime members who were looking to launder their illegal income. The casinos also grew because they provided an escape from reality and a place where people could play games of chance with other people. This provided an excellent opportunity for gamblers to test their luck and hopefully win a huge amount of money.

While some games have a skill element, most are games of pure chance and the house has an advantage over the players at all times. This advantage is mathematically determined and known as the house edge, which can be very small or large depending on the type of game played.

During the 1990s, casinos dramatically increased their use of technology to monitor the tables and patrons. Some examples of this are a high-tech “eye-in-the-sky” system that watches each table and window from cameras suspended in the ceiling, electronic chips that record betting patterns to detect cheating, and roulette wheels that are electronically monitored to spot any statistical deviations.