At some point in their lives, most people will find out what a casino is. It doesn’t matter if you’ve ever been to one, you will at least have seen a casino before. If you don’t know what a casino is, where have you been hiding all these years?

For thousands of years people have been gambling, so it’s little wonder that online casinos have taken off in such a big way. Often, a casino will have a large range of games including poker, craps, baccarat and a lot of slot machines.

Americans love casinos and what used to be a quiet mining town, Las Vegas, has now become the casino hub of the planet earth. It has reached massive notoriety for stars such as Elvis, along with becoming very well known for its show girls and extremely high budget productions the Vegas strip.

In Las Vegas, casinos are occasionally part of a hotel and have become a big tourist attraction in that area of the states. Many casinos in Las Vegas have become landmarks in their own right and even as icons of America itself. Another place, notorious in the US for its casinos, is Atlantic City.

In stark contrast to the US, casinos in the UK are usually a lot smaller and less ornate, but there were plans for a super casino to be built in Manchester, until the government stopped the process. However, the UK still has many casinos and you will see one in most of the big towns and cities.

The most common way that people discover casinos is through films. Casinos are regularly featured in movies and many times have been the setting for many notorious scenes in flicks such as 21, the Oceans trilogy, Showgirls, Casino and James Bond. Bond fans will also recall that a recent Bond film as named ‘Casino Royale’.

Many people also now experience casinos through the internet. Recently, many people have been playing and gambling at online casinos, which have been popular since they were developed in the mid nineties. Over the last few of years online casinos have become so well-liked that new ones are appearing every day. Some nations have however forbidden online casinos and gambling in general.

By Marcus Miles
Marcus Miles is an amateur gamer, based in Manchester, United Kingdom. He has been writing about gaming-related issues for over ten years, having started his career writing about gaming in the editorial department of a regional poker magazine in Liverpool. He has been a contributor to a number of internet gaming websites, most recently online casino, http://www.kerching.com