Casino Gambling History
Zeus, Hades and Poseidon are said to have split the Universe by sharing heaven,
hell and sea with the throw of dices; Roman soldiers played the Christ's tunic
with dices at the bottom of the Cross.
During antiquity, Greek and Roman nobilities went to spas to rest their body
and enjoy time by gaming. With the expansion of the Roman Empire the spa towns
expanded as well as related gambling activities.
From the Middle Ages to the 18th century, gambling activities moved from the
exclusive spa resorts to become part of the social life of the urban rich and
famous. Governments then started to regulate all gaming activities to preserve
the-man-in-the-street's solvency they relied upon. Card games and dices were
particularly "en vogue" at that time.
 The
Rummy, 19th century engraving.
In 1626 in Venice (Italy, Europe) a public gambling house was legalized for
the first time. Soon the high Venetian society met in so called little houses
or "casini" to indulge in everything from business dealings, politics,
gambling and more carnival pleasures. "Casino" became synonymous
with vice and perdition.
Taking Venice as a model, gambling houses spread in many spa resorts throughout
Europe. The most famous of all would give its name to the concept: Spa in Belgium
where the casino activity has been officially recognized in the 17th century.
Gambling houses became an official, organized and legal activity, patronized
by the European aristocracy and bourgeoisie.
After the fall into disgrace of Venice, Spa boomed with new casinos, new games
and longer opening hours (up to 12 hours a day) while casinos also thrived
in France, Germany and England.
The 19th century marked the official legalization of casinos by Napoleon in
1806. Casinos introduced security, high standard, quality service, comfort,
luxury; managers started to restrict access to a selected clientele. The myth
of casino was born with stories of successes, heavy losses, bankruptcies, suicides,
and noble attitudes, fortunes made and lost overnight... Gambling became a
fashionable hobby and casinos places to be and to be seen, a showcase of the
rich and the famous wealth.
In 1837, all casinos in France were declared illegal. By opposition, in Germany,
they prospered like in Baden-Baden, Wiesbaden or Bad-Homburg where for the
first time chips were used as the instruments to wager. Casinos innovated with
the introduction of the first single-zero roulette table.
In 1860, Monaco (Europe) was in great financial troubles when a man named
François Blanc proposed to open a casino to overcome. Three years later, the "Société des
Bains de Mer" (SBM) was created with the opening of the casino. This became
the most famous and glamorous gambling place on earth, Monte-Carlo.
The British aristocracy soon discovered the French Riviera for its winter
holidays and Monte-Carlo for gambling thrills. New rooms were opened in the
casinos, higher limits were introduced, fortunes were made and ended every
day; in 1899, "salons privés" (private rooms) were opened
with unlimited bets.
In the United States of America, after a brief attempt to legalize gambling
on the Louisiana’s riverboats in 1890, the end of the Prohibition in 1932
led to the extensive development of illegal gambling "joints" with
the exception of the State of Nevada where gambling was legalized in 1931.
Benjamin Siegel, alias "Bugsy", would be the founder of the modern
Las Vegas we all know today as the World's Entertainment Capital.
In Asia, gambling "dens" started operating in China, Saigon (Vietnam)
and in Macao where casinos opened as early as 1850. In 1962 when the "Sociedade
de Turismo e Diversoes de Macao" won the monopoly for the casino licenses
that Macao became a gambling empire within Asia.
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