How do tournaments work?

So I been reading books on poker and playing online cash games once in awhile. Dont really do any tournaments yet, though they are easily accessible on the site im on. If im going to be in a tournament though... I want to be at a real table with real people at a casino. I guess its a good replacement for the things I used to do at a casino such as video poker or blackjack because I actually have a chance to win.
Anyway the nearest legal poker table to me is a 65 dollar buy in.. thats pretty much all the details the casino website gives. So.... does that mean its 65 dollars to enter, then you put a couple thousand dollars on the table after that? That sounds ridiculous. Or is it thousands of *chips* which are like monopoly money and you use them to win the tournament, and if your "in the money" your one of the larger chip stacks at the end of the tournament. Its kinda the idea im getting from the books I read geared toward tournament play. Because i'd love to put down 65 bucks to play a poker tournament for hundreds or thousands of dollars. Sounds way better than putting those 65 bucks into a slot machine or ANY other game in the house where my money just gets eaten.

$65 is just the buy-in. There is nothing else to buy unless it's a rebuy tournament.

So yeah, basically you buy-in for the amount and each player who buys in gets how ever many chips you start with and you basically just have to try build your stack and avoid losing your chips. Yes it's way better than putting it in slots or any other house game, especially if you have some sort of edge vs the players. You also get more for your money playing a poker tournament than anything else.

Wow! That sounds like an amazing amount of fun. I don't see why people flock to all the other slots and hourse games over poker... Theres so much more fun and payout to poker.
I dont care if I never ever win a tournament. No other game in the casino has winners so at least i'd be playing a game thats winnable and the odds of winning get better as I get better. In the end ill always be getting more for my money than all the sheep flocking to the slots and table games with house edge(cept for blackjack, that one is beatable even though theres a house edge).
Ive seen people lose hundreds and hundreds in very short spans of time on these slots and table games played all on cash. 65 bucks for a good long tournament sounds like a great deal for me even if I lose