The History of Casinos

When you stop to look at the casinos of today, you’ll see some of the most glamorous and extravagant resorts in the world. Nothing is too expensive when building these wonders as many casinos feature luxurious hotel rooms, delicious buffets, and flashy game rooms. But few people realize how humble the beginnings were for these massive structures or even how the concept of a casino was first conceived. And it really is an amazing story how casinos went from tiny villas to the marvels that they have become. 

Long before anyone conceived the idea of a casino, gambling and casino gaming  was thriving among small clusters of people in earlier civilizations. Everyone from the Greeks to the Egyptians had some form of gambling, and everything from gladiator battles to horse races was bet on. But gambling was never the vast, organized operation that it is today since most of the betting involved small wagers amongst commoners. There was no House, there were no bookies, and there certainly weren’t any lines.

 

Much of this changed in 17^th century Italy when wealthy Italian aristocrats got together and held private parties in small clubs called ridotti. While people would still congregate in these small villas, it was gambling that brought them together. The ridotti clubs would come to be known as casinos which means “small villa” in Italian. And even though gambling was illegal in Italy during this time, the middle class and poor would get into the act as well. 

Just like today, many of these gaming casinos weren’t too popular with the local governments and gambling was looked down upon by society; some countries had already outlawed gambling and casinos. But despite this fact, casinos still continued to pop up all over Italy, and gambling was just as popular as ever. It was really only a matter of time before a city decided to open a legal version.

 

And it was Vienna which took the initiative in opening a legal gaming casino in 1638; they named it Ridotti after the elite clubs where all of the rich people did their gambling. This four-story building hosted various card games and allowed anyone who had the money to gamble. News of the Ridotti’s success spread to other nations in Europe, and so casinos started appearing in various parts of the continent. 

While other cities began to build their own versions of casinos, neither they nor the Ridotti were anything to marvel at – even in those days. But the 18^th century would see a new wave of gaming casinos built which would work on awing customers as much as they would on taking people’s money.

 

The first of these extravagant casinos was the Baden-Baden which opened in 1748 and still featured the traditional house look. However, this was no ordinary house since the Baden-Baden was a magnificent place complete with massive pillars and a plush lawn. People from all over were happy to make the trip to the Baden-Baden just to see it and – amazingly – the Baden-Baden still operates today. Other places would soon follow the model set forth by Germany’s Baden-Baden, and thus began the path towards modern casinos.

While gambling was definitely becoming an extremely popular activity enhanced by casinos, it had yet to go full scale. Casinos were still far and few in between and many commoners stuck to gambling amongst themselves. But a change would come in certain parts of the world where gambling was increasing in popularity.

 

France was certainly one place where gambling had struck in a big way. In fact, several of the games used in modern casinos today were invented by the French. So it’s no surprise that a sovereign territory surrounded by France would become one of the world’s top casino havens. And that’s exactly what Monte Carlo would become after the Monte Carlo Casino was opened in the Monaco city in 1863. The lavish Monte Carlo Casino and breathtaking views of the Mediterranean Sea would help to make Monte Carlo one of the biggest gambling destinations in the world.   

 

The United States, too, eventually became a paradise for gamblers all over the world. Casinos had already begun to open along the Mississippi River, and the saloons of the Wild West saw a lot of gambling as well. There was no doubt that gambling was becoming an increasingly big part of American society during this time period. But the country’s betting activities regressed in the early 1900’s when society and the government sought to bring an end to lawlessness in the Wild West.

 

However, some states began realizing that trying to end gambling was futile, and Nevada was the first one to act. Seizing the opportunity to profit from gambling, the state legalized it in 1931. This opened the gates for the first Las Vegas casino which was called El Rancho Vegas; it was finished in 1941 and was built on the future Vegas Strip. Other gaming casinos followed in its’ footsteps, and another gambling destination was born. Interestingly enough, the United States would become home to another casino haven when Atlantic City successfully brought legalized gambling to the other side of the US in the 1970’s. 

 

Coinciding with Las Vegas’ growth has been the rise of Macau – a special administrative region of China. Macau’s beginnings as a gambling hub can be traced back to the early 1800’s when the Portuguese-controlled area was turned into an entertainment capital for traders sailing through the region. But Macau gambling wasn’t refined until 1937 when the Tai Xing Company was given permission to open casinos in the area. In 1962, Dr. Stanley Ho built a casino empire complete with transportation to and from China. Even when Ho got out of the game in the 90’s, Macau continued its growth towards becoming the casino capital of the world. 

Most people love the atmosphere that casinos offer just as much as they love the gambling. However, sometimes all a person wants to do is gamble, and it was online casinos which gave people the option to do this, even when at home. Online gambling started appearing on the Internet around the mid-90’s; but then there were just a bunch of free casino games which people could play for fun.

 

Then online casinos took the experience to another level when they started offering real money games. Some people were thrilled about the concept of being able to wager on all of the popular casino games right from their own home. Unfortunately, the majority of gamblers weren’t thrilled about the concept of online transactions, and most of the online casino rooms did rather poorly at the time.

 

But seeing potential in the online industry, many companies began to invest heavily in Internet online gaming casinos. In doing so, they were able to improve many aspects of online casinos including the graphics, game speed, and promotions. Online casino gaming would eventually become serious competition for land-based casinos since it cost less to run the Internet ones, and they were able to offer generous promotions on top of this. Today, there are literally thousands of online casinos operating and many of them experienced real success stories.