casino
Americannoun
plural
casinos-
a building or large room used for meetings, entertainment, dancing, etc., especially such a place equipped with gambling devices, gambling tables, etc.
-
(in Italy) a small country house or lodge.
-
Cards. Also cassino a game in which cards that are face up on the table are taken with eligible cards in the hand.
noun
-
a public building or room in which gaming takes place, esp roulette and card games such as baccarat and chemin de fer
-
a variant spelling of cassino
Other Word Forms
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.
Prior to that role, she led the Los Angeles chapter of Unite Here, the nationwide union for restaurant, hospitality and casino workers.
From Los Angeles Times • May 1, 2026
As he said just the other day when quizzed about the soldier who was indicted for betting on the prediction market, “The whole world is a casino, it is what it is.”
From Salon • Apr. 28, 2026
The media is housed in a casino hotel, about a 10-minute walk away, through a tunnel and across a car park, although there is a small workspace in the paddock as well.
From BBC • Apr. 28, 2026
If China is the casino, artificial intelligence is the table stakes.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 24, 2026
I walked around the harbor under the trees to the casino, and then up one of the cool streets to the Café Marinas.
From "The Sun Also Rises" by Ernest Hemingway
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
