casino
Americannoun
-
casinos
plural
-
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
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:
On Wednesday, Trump will head to Las Vegas to deliver a speech at a casino focused on the economic achievements of his administration.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 5, 2026
The hotel and casino company on Tuesday reported a loss of $62 million, or 30 a share, compared with a loss of $82 million, or 39 cents a share, a year earlier.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 28, 2026
In the wake of the 2007-09 recession, the Caesars Entertainment casino empire came close to defaulting on more than $25 billion in debt, and an unusually vicious corporate bankruptcy fight began.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 27, 2026
Burnham's Everton have a link to Stake.com, a crypto casino without a licence to operate in the UK.
From BBC ● Jul. 21, 2026
Uncle George is dealing out cards, fast, as though he learned this technique in a casino.
From "The Joy Luck Club" by Amy Tan
A failed plan to bring in casinos left the area desolate after other businesses closed to make way for development that never emerged.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 5, 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
Kirkland said the regulations would have especially affected cities like Bell Gardens and Hawaiian Gardens, where casinos represent nearly 70% of the general fund.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 9, 2026
Las Vegas once offered cheap hotel rooms and buffets as loss leaders to lure gamblers into casinos.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 19, 2026
Last Nathan had heard, Uncle Jet was working as a security guard at one of the casinos in Albuquerque.
From "Healer of the Water Monster" by Brian Young
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.
