casino
Americannoun
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casinos
plural
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a building or large room used for meetings, entertainment, dancing, etc., especially such a place equipped with gambling devices, gambling tables, etc.
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(in Italy) a small country house or lodge.
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Cards. Also cassino a game in which cards that are face up on the table are taken with eligible cards in the hand.
noun
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a public building or room in which gaming takes place, esp roulette and card games such as baccarat and chemin de fer
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a variant spelling of cassino
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of casino
1780–90; < Italian, equivalent to cas(a) “house” + -ino diminutive suffix
Explanation
A casino is a building where people can gamble and play games of chance. Your grandmother might enjoy taking weekend bus trips to the nearest casino with her friends. Many casinos are near — or inside — hotels, and include opportunities to dine, drink, and shop. The main event at a casino, however, is the chance to gamble either by betting money on games like blackjack or poker, or by putting coins in a slot machine. Casino is also the name of a card game. The word comes from the Italian casa, or "house." In the 1800s casino came to mean "building for aristocratic gambling."
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Tan said at an conference in Singapore on Monday that many investors have "no clue" and have set "extreme expectations only to find out that it's almost like they are in a casino".
From BBC ● Oct. 15, 2026
Investors have focused on Hock Tan’s comments at the DBS Asia Future Forward Conference, as reported by Bloomberg, that artificial-intelligence investors are like casino gamblers.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 13, 2026
The release added to market jitters prompted by comments from Broadcom Chief Executive Hock Tan, who compared AI investors to casino gamblers.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 13, 2026
They "set very extreme expectations only to find out that it’s almost like they are in a casino".
From Barron's ● Oct. 13, 2026
Only Indian tribes are allowed to run casino operations in Florida, so Dusty somehow persuaded a couple of rich Miccosukees from Miami to buy the marina and make it part of their reservation.
From "Flush" by Carl Hiaasen
That’s why casinos don’t worry about going out of business after a few bad nights.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 29, 2026
There were the frozen steaks, the fraudulent university, the ill-fated airline shuttle, the bankrupt Atlantic City casinos and a short-lived dating show spun off from “The Apprentice” that was canceled after two seasons.
From Salon ● Sep. 24, 2026
The hunt for AI-proof assets is leading investors to sports, casinos and travel.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 3, 2026
There could be a ban on unlicensed casinos from sponsoring sports teams, too, with Burnham a long-time critic of the negative effects of gambling.
From BBC ● Jul. 21, 2026
They only paid four twenty-five an hour, and with all the casinos right across the river starting people at six twenty-five, well, it was hard to keep bodies behind the counter.
From "Into the Wild" by Jon Krakauer
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