casino
Americannoun
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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:
In another lawsuit, he claimed an arcade rigged its claw machines against players, alleging it functioned as “a casino for children.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 8, 2026
He then moved to Montenegro where the Sunday Times reports he became a "key player" in Tether.bet, an online bookmaker and casino offering users large stakes on sports and politics in cash or cryptocurrency.
From BBC ● Jul. 5, 2026
Its biggest funder is the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria, a Sonoma County tribe that operates a casino in Rohnert Park and spends heavily in state and federal elections.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 25, 2026
“It’s more of a bet in this casino economy of ours,” said Victor Tan Chen, a sociologist at Virginia Commonwealth University.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 25, 2026
“We flew in this morning and went to the spa and the nail salon. See? I got the gel. Then we hit the casino, and tomorrow we’re gonna see the white tigers.”
From "Genuine Fraud" by E. Lockhart
She had requested the money from the men to care for sick relatives, but authorities told the Review Journal that the money was in fact used to gamble at Vegas casinos.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 13, 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
He also developed a reputation as a partier because of his frequent trips to casinos and jet-setting lifestyle.
From BBC ● Jun. 27, 2026
For a time, my father, Ron, made fiberglass rocks—the kind used in zoos and casinos.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 16, 2026
Four casinos down on the strip, Jule surveyed six restaurants until she found a place to order a coffee and chat up a lonely college student who was just starting work on the night shift.
From "Genuine Fraud" by E. Lockhart
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.
