All About Casinos

• Games Played
  Most casinos offer a wide choice of games, loosely based on the three basic items of equipment used in gaming - cards, dice and wheels. Mechanical games (those that used wheels or other moving equipment) include roulette, slots, boule, big six wheel, and a form of lottery called keno. Craps, two-up and sic-bo are all played with dice, or tokens such as coins. Card games include blackjack, poker, punto banco (also called chemin de fer or baccarat) and red-dog.

The games played in casinos vary from country to country. Some games have a number of international variations which are known by different names, others are seldom played outside their country of origin. Poker, craps and slot machines are commonly found in the USA and in international resort casinos, whereas European casinos tend to have traditional games, like French roulette, boules and chemin de fer. Two-up is confined to Australian casinos. As the name suggests, Caribbean stud poker is particularly popular in that region, although it is also played elsewhere.

Casino cards are usually larger that normal playing cards. The two standard packs (decks) of cards used widely in casinos, English language cards and French language cards, differ only in the symbol marked on the court (or picture) cards. In the English deck the King, Queen and Jack are marked with the symbols K, Q and J respectively, while the French cards use R, D and V (standing for Roi, Dame and Valet). Although the symbols differ, the cards are easily identified by the pictures and players using an unfamiliar deck should not be confused.

Many casinos produce leaflets outlining the various rules and providing brief details on how to play each of the games. Some casinos also give lessons at quieter times of the day, enabling players to try the games and learn the rules without losing any money.

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