In modern English, a casino is a facility which houses and accommodates certain types of gambling activities. Casinos are most commonly built near or combined with hotels, restaurants, retail shopping, cruise ships or other tourist attractions. There is much debate over whether or not the social and economic consequences of casino gambling outweigh the initial revenue that may be generated. In the United States, many states are grappling with high unemployment and budget deficits and are now turning to legalizing casinos, often in places that are not tourist destinations. Some casinos are also known for hosting live entertainment events, such as stand-up comedy, concerts, and sporting events. Use of the word in the past, and modern use in some countries, does not necessarily involve gambling.

Etymology and usage

The term "Casino" is of Italian origin, the root word being "Casa" (house) and originally meant a small country villa, summerhouse or pavilion. The word changed to refer to a building built for pleasure, usually on the grounds of a larger Italian villa or palazzo. Such buildings were used to host civic town functions – including dancing, music listening and gambling.

There are examples of such casinos at Villa Giulia and Villa Farnese. In modern day Italian, this term designates a bordello (also called "casa chiusa", literally "closed house"), while the gambling house is spelled ''casinò'' with an accent.

During the 19th century, the term "casino" came to include other public buildings where pleasurable activities, including gambling, and sports took place. An example of this type of building is the Newport Casino in Newport, Rhode Island.

Not all casinos were used for gaming. The Copenhagen Casino was a theatre, known for the use made of its hall for mass public meetings during the 1848 Revolution which made Denmark a constitutional monarchy. Until 1937 it was a well-known Danish theatre. The Hanko Casino located in Hanko, Finland - one of that town's most conspicuous landmarks - was never used for gambling. Rather, it was a banquet hall for the Russian nobility which frequented this spa resort in the late 19th century, and is presently used as a restaurant. The Catalina Casino, a famous landmark overlooking Avalon Harbor on Santa Catalina Island, California, has never been used for traditional games of chance, which were already outlawed in California by the time it was built.

In military usage in Spanish and German, a ''casino'' or ''kasino'' is an officers' mess; a confusing linguistic false friend for translators.

History of gambling houses

The precise origin of gambling is unknown. The Chinese recorded the first official account of the practice in 2300 BC, but it is generally believed that gambling in some form or another has been seen in almost every society in history. From the Ancient Greeks and Romans to Napoleon's France and Elizabethan England, much of history is filled with stories of entertainment based on games of chance.

The first known European gambling house, not called a casino although meeting the modern definition, was the Ridotto, established in Venice, Italy in 1638 to provide controlled gambling during the carnival season. It was closed in the 1770 as the city government perceived it to impoverish the local gentry.

In American history, early gambling establishments were known as saloons. The creation and importance of saloons was greatly influenced by four major cities; New Orleans, St. Louis, Chicago and San Francisco. It was in the saloons that travelers could find people to talk to, drink with, and often gamble with. During the early 20th century in America, gambling became outlawed and banned by state legislation and social reformers of the time. However, in 1931, gambling was legalized throughout the state of Nevada, along with Las Vegas and Reno. America's first legalized casinos were set up in those places. In 1978 New Jersey allowed gambling in Atlantic City, now America's second largest gambling city.

Gambling in casinos

In most jurisdictions worldwide, gambling is limited to persons over the age of license (16 to 21 years of age in most countries where casinos are permitted).

Customers gamble by playing games of chance, in some cases with an element of skill, such as craps, roulette, baccarat, blackjack, and video poker. Most games played have mathematically-determined odds that ensure the house has at all times an advantage over the players. This can be expressed more precisely by the notion of expected value, which is uniformly negative (from the player's perspective). This advantage is called the ''house edge''. In games such as poker where players play against each other, the house takes a commission called the rake. Casinos sometimes give out complimentary items to gamblers.

''Payout'' is the percentage won by players.

Casinos in the USA say that a player staking money won from the casino is ''playing with house money''.

Video Lottery Machines (slot machines), have become one of the most popular form of gambling in casinos. Recently, investigative reports have been calling into question whether the modern day slot machine is addictive.

Markets

The following lists major casino markets in the world with casino revenue of over US$1,000 million as published in PricewaterhouseCoopers's report on the outlook for the global casino market:

By region

Asia Pacific Europe, Middle East, Africa Canada Latin America Total

Rank !! Location !! Casinos !! Revenue (2009)US$M !! Revenue (2010 Projected)US$M !! Revenue (2011 Projected)US$M
1	United States	|	57,240	56,500	58,030
2	|		21,845	32,305	41,259
3	|		17,259	16,186	16,452
4	|	22	3,712	3,835	4,045
5	|		425	528	594
	|		100,481	109,354	120,380

By markets

33 Las Vegas, United States Singapore France Atlantic City, United States Australia South Korea Germany South Africa United Kingdom Poland

Rank !! Location !! Casinos !! Revenue (2009)US$M !! Revenue (2010 Projected)US$M !! Revenue (2011 Projected)US$M
1	Macao	|	14,955	22,445	28,379
2	|		10,247	9,950	10,300
3	|	2	NA	2,750	5,479
4	|		3,965	3,909	3,957
5	|	11	3,943	3,550	3,330
6	|	11	2,697	2,769	2,847
7	|	17	2,401	2,430	2,512
8	|		2,073	2,055	2,081
9	|	4	1,601	1,649	1,740
10	|		1,212	1,193	1,209
11	|		1,089	1,091	1,126

Significant sites

While there are casinos in many places, a few places have become well-known specifically for gambling. Perhaps the place almost defined by its casino is Monte Carlo, but other places are known as gambling centers.

Monte Carlo, Monaco

Monte Carlo has a famous casino popular with well-off visitors, which is a tourist attraction in its own right. A song and a film named ''The Man Who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo'' need no explanation—they clearly refer to the casino.

The casino has made Monte Carlo so well known for games of chance that mathematical methods for solving various problems using many quasi-random numbers—numbers with the statistical distribution of numbers generated by chance—are formally known as Monte Carlo methods. Monte Carlo was part of the plot in a few James Bond novels and films.

Macao

The former Portuguese colony of Macau, a special administrative region of China since 1999, is a popular destination for visitors who wish to gamble. This started in Portuguese times, when Macau was popular with visitors from nearby British Hong Kong where gambling was more closely regulated.

Casinos in the United States

There are almost 900 casinos now in the United States, with that number steadily growing as more states seek to legalize casinos. 38 states now have some form of casino gambling. Relatively small places such as Las Vegas are best known for gambling; larger cities such as Chicago are not defined by their casinos in spite of the large turnover.

Las Vegas has the largest concentration of casinos in the United States. Based on revenue, Atlantic City, New Jersey ranks second, and the Chicago region third.

Top American casino markets by revenue (2009 annual revenues):

1. Las Vegas Strip $5.550 billion

2. Atlantic City $3.943 billion

3. Chicago region $2.092 billion

4. Connecticut $1.448 billion

5. Detroit $1.36 billion

6. St. Louis $1.050 billion

7. Tunica Resorts, Mississippi $997.02 million

8. Biloxi, Miss. $833.50 million

9. Shreveport, La. $779.65 million

10. Boulder Strip (Las Vegas) $774.33 million

12. Reno, Nevada $715.23 million

15. New Orleans, La. $653.05 million

18. Downtown Las Vegas $523.82 million

19. Laughlin, Nevada $492.51 million

The Nevada Gaming Control Board divides Clark County, which is coextensive with the Las Vegas metropolitan area, into seven regions for reporting purposes.

Indian gaming has been responsible for a rise in the number of casinos outside of Las Vegas and Atlantic City.

Security

Given the large amounts of currency handled within a casino, both patrons and staff may be tempted to cheat and steal, in collusion or independently; most casinos have security measures to prevent this. Security cameras located throughout the casino are the most basic measure.

Modern casino security is usually divided between a physical security force and a specialized surveillance department. The physical security force usually patrols the casino and responds to calls for assistance and reports of suspicious or definite criminal activity. A specialized surveillance department operates the casino's closed circuit television system, known in the industry as the eye in the sky. Both of these specialized casino security departments work very closely with each other to ensure the safety of both guests as well as the casino's assets, and have been quite successful in preventing crime. Some casinos also have catwalks in the ceiling above the casino floor, which allow surveillance personnel to look directly down, through one way glass, on the activities at the tables and slot machines.

When it opened in 1989, The Mirage was the first casino to use cameras full-time on all table games.

In addition to cameras and other technological measures, casinos also enforce security through rules of conduct and behavior; for example, players at card games are usually required to keep their hands visible at all times.

Business Practices

Over the past few decades, casinos have developed many different marketing techniques for attracting and maintaining loyal patrons. Many casinos use a loyalty rewards program used to track players' spending habits and target their patrons more effectively, by sending mailings with free slot play and other promotions.

Crime

One area of controversy surrounding casinos is their relationship to crime rates. Economics studies that do show a positive relationship between casinos and crime usually fail to consider the visiting population at risk when they calculate the crime rate in casino areas. Such studies thus count the crimes committed by visitors, but do not count visitors in the population measure, and this overstates the crime rates in casino areas. Part of the reason this methodology is used, despite it leading to an overstatement of crime rates is that reliable data on tourist count are often not available. In a 2004 report by the US Department of Justice, researchers interviewed people who had been arrested in Las Vegas and Des Moines and found that the percentage of problem or pathological gamblers among the arrestees was three to five times higher than in the general population. According to some police reports, incidences of reported crime often double and triple in communities within three years of a casino opening.

See also

Gallery

Notes

External links

Category:Gambling

be:Казіно be-x-old:Казіно bg:Казино ca:Casino cs:Kasino cy:Casino da:Kasino de:Spielbank nv:Naʼazhǫǫsh (ndajiné dóó adazhdikaʼgi) et:Kasiino el:Καζίνο es:Casino de juego eo:Kazino fa:قمارخانه fr:Casino (lieu) gu:કસિનો ko:카지노 hr:Kasino io:Kazino id:Kasino (tempat perjudian) it:Casa da gioco he:קזינו la:Aleatorium hu:Kaszinó ms:Kasino mn:Казино my:ကက်စီနို nl:Casino (gokken) ja:カジノ no:Kasino oc:Casinò pl:Kasyno pt:Casino ro:Cazinou ru:Казино fi:Kasino sv:Kasino ta:சூதாட்டரங்கம் th:กาสิโน tr:Kumarhane uk:Казино vi:Sòng bạc wuu:赌场 yi:קאסינא yo:Kàsínò zh:賭場

name	Count von Count
series	Sesame Street
first	November 27, 1972
voice	Jerry Nelson
alias	The Count
gender	Male }}

Count von Count, often known simply as "The Count", is one of the Muppet characters on ''Sesame Street'', performed by Jerry Nelson. The Count is a vampire modeled after Bela Lugosi's interpretation of Count Dracula.

Description

The Count's main purpose is educating children on simple mathematical concepts, most notably counting. The Count has a love of counting (''arithmomania''); he will count anything and everything, regardless of size, amount, or how much annoyance he is causing the other Muppets or human cast. For instance, he once prevented Ernie from answering a telephone because he wanted to continue counting the number of rings. Another time, while serving as an elevator operator, he refused to let Kermit the Frog get out at his selected floor so he could count all the floors in the building.

The Count lives in an old, cobweb-infested castle which he shares with many bats. Sometimes he counts them. Some of the pet bats are named, including Grisha, Misha, Sasha, and Tatiana. He has a cat, Fatatita, as well. Sometimes he counts her. He also drives a special car designed in the features of a bat, named the Countmobile, intended as a pun to the Batmobile.

The Count has been shown with a number of girlfriends. Always a feminized version of The Count muppet, they have included Countess von Backwards (debuting in Sesame Street's 28th season) who counts backwards; Countess Dahling von Dahling (debuted in the 12th season), and one simply named "The Countess" (first appearing in season 8). The von Count family also includes an unnamed brother and mother as well as an Uncle Uno and grandparents.

History and evolution of the character on ''Sesame Street''

The Count debuted on ''Sesame Street'' in Season 4 (1972–73), and was conceived by Norman Stiles, who wrote the first script. The Count was performed by Jerry Nelson, who brought the character to life. He was originally made out of the Large Lavender Live Hand Anything Muppet pattern.

In the early 1970s, following a counting session, the Count would laugh maniacally, "AH AH AH AH AH!", accompanied by thunder and lightning flashes. He wouldn't let anything interrupt his counting, and used hypnotic powers to temporarily stun people with a wave of his hands. This practice, however, was discontinued in the mid-1970s because of concern that young viewers would become frightened. In the mid-1970s, the Count became friendlier, did not have hypnotic powers, and interacted more with the characters (both live actors and Muppets). His laugh also changed from maniacal laughter to a more triumphant, stereotypical Dracula-style laugh.

He made an appearance in ''The Muppets Take Manhattan'', then in the ''Sesame Street'' movies ''Follow That Bird'' and ''Elmo in Grouchland''. Notably, the Count appeared on-screen during the closing credits of ''Follow That Bird'' where he proceeded to read and count the credits.

In Season 33, the Count got a daily segment on ''Sesame Street'', simply called The ''Number of the Day''.

Influences and resemblances

When the Count sings, the background music resembles Romani music or Jewish music, no matter what the song. The original "Song of the Count" was written by Jeff Moss as a traditional Hungarian Csárdás.

Some traditional vampire myths depict vampires as having a similar fixation with counting small objects, providing a means of distracting them by tossing a handful of seeds or salt on the ground. This is seen as a protection from the vampire, similar to the use of garlic (by which he is not repelled). The Count's own arithmomania may simply be a coincidence, however, inspired by the pun on his title of nobility and his educational purpose. According to his theme song, "The Song of the Count": "When I'm alone, I count myself. One count!"

The Count bears a noticeable resemblance to Bela Lugosi as Count Dracula, including a similar accent and oversized, pointed canine teeth (better known as fangs, although Lugosi himself did not bear fangs in the 1931 film), but it would appear that he is different from other vampires, besides sporting a goatee and monocle. For example, most vampires wither in direct sunlight; the Count does not and, in fact, enjoys being outside. Additionally, the Count does not suck blood (or drink it) [he even has no association with it], change into a bat (even though he does have bat companions) or sleep in a coffin. He also sleeps at night in a normal bed. In many ways, he is more like a regular human than a vampire. However, the Count still has one vampiric trait: he has no reflection in mirrors.

Internationally

In the Dutch version of the series, ''Sesamstraat'', the Count's name is Graaf Tel (literally, "Count Count").

In the French series ''1, Rue Sésame'', his name is Comte von Compte.

In the German series ''Sesamstraße'', his name is Graf Zahl (literally, "Count Number").

In the Hebrew series ''Rechov Sumsum'', his name is 'מר סופר', phonetically pronounced 'Mar Sofer', which literally means "Mr. Counter".

In the Mexican series ''Plaza Sésamo'', his name is El Conde Contar (literally, "Count Count").

In the Polish series ''Ulica Sezamkowa'', his name is Liczyhrabia (literally, "Countcount").

In the Portugal series ''Rua Sésamo'', his name is Conde de Contar (translated as "Count of Counting")

In the Russian series ''Улица Сезам'', his name is Znak (Знак).

In the Spanish series, ''Barrio Sésamo'', his name is Conde Draco.

In the Turkish series ''Susam Sokağı'', his name is Sayıların Kontu (literally, "The Count of Numbers")

Appearances outside of ''Sesame Street''

The Count appeared on a video package aired on the first episode of ''The Late Show with David Letterman'' that was shown after Letterman's emergency quintuple bypass operation. He appeared as a surgeon in an operating theater, counting "One bypass... AH AH AH! Two bypass..."

In a ''Dancing with the Stars'' results show that aired on October 2, 2007, a fake backstage sequence with Jimmy Kimmel claimed that votes for the show are tabulated by The Count, who was depicted as being thrown into a panic by the discovery that "Mel B" and "Scary Spice" are in fact the same person.

The Count was interviewed on the ''BBC Radio 4'' programme ''More or Less'' on December 11, 2009, where he mentioned his favorite number, 34969.

He appeared on the Halloween edition of SportsCenter to count down the top ten trickplays of the 2010 college football season.

He appeared in the MAD episode Mouse M.D along with Cookie Monster.

He was a guest on Countdown with Keith Olbermann for the first anniversary episode.

He attended the 100th anniversary of the Island Public School and gave a speech to help celebrate the 100th Day of School in 2008.

References in popular culture

The St. Paul Saints, an independent minor-league baseball team in St. Paul, Minnesota known for unique and sometimes over-the-top promotions, announced that it would give away 2,500 bobblehead dolls dressed as the Count at its May 23, 2009 game. However, instead of the Count's regular head, this doll's head featured Al Franken on one side and Norm Coleman on the other, and was called "Count von Re-Count"—referring to the extraordinarily prolonged recount and legal battle surrounding the 2008 U.S. Senate election between the two men. The team made further jabs at the election during the game. Australian rugby league football international Anthony Minichiello has been nicknamed 'The Count' due to his resemblance to the character.

Dave Chapelle has compared the Count to a pimp in his standup routines.

Notes and references

External links

Category:Fictional counts and countesses Category:Fictional vampires Category:Sesame Street Muppet characters Category:Fictional characters introduced in 1972 Category:Fictional Romanian people

de:Sesamstraße#Graf Zahl es:Count von Count nl:Graaf Tel pl:Liczyhrabia pt:Count von Count ru:Граф фон Знак