casino

American  

[kuh-see-noh] / kəˈsi noʊ /

noun

plural

casinos

1. a building or large room used for meetings, entertainment, dancing, etc., especially such a place equipped with gambling devices, gambling tables, etc.

2. (in Italy) a small country house or lodge.

3. Cards. Also cassino a game in which cards that are face up on the table are taken with eligible cards in the hand.

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casino British  

/ kəˈsiːnəʊ /

noun

1. a public building or room in which gaming takes place, esp roulette and card games such as baccarat and chemin de fer

2. a variant spelling of cassino

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Other Word Forms

• subcasino noun

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

The court heard Cassidy also spent £2,400 on a council tax bill; £2,200 on artificial grass at her business partner's home; £1,300 at designer tailors Forbes; and £800 at Glasgow's Corinthian's casino.

From BBC • Apr. 7, 2026

And, as with any casino, the house had the advantage, the biggest being margin lending.

From Barron's • Apr. 7, 2026

Wandering down the unlit corridors of a six-storey building behind the Royal Hill casino, each door opens onto a different world.

From BBC • Apr. 6, 2026

Both 72, they call the event Los Tradicionales — “the traditional ones” — because their goal is to help preserve Cuba’s rich dance heritage, from rumba to timba to casino, an ancestor of salsa.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 4, 2026

The first morning of the conference, they’d followed a crowd of thousands out of the casino and into the vast main ballroom to attend the opening ceremony.

From "The Big Short" by Michael Lewis