Gambling existed way, way before there were casinos. The Chinese were doing it 2000 years BC. The Romans are known to have enjoyed a wager or two on horses, gladiatorial combat and dice. In fact, pretty much every civilization has a history of gambling. And if they don’t, they must have covered their tracks really well…
So, where and when did the first casinos spring up? Well, casino is Italian for ‘little house’ and the earliest casinos in Europe were simply private clubs or houses where gamblers could congregate to play and bet against each other. These gaming houses became very popular during the 17th century, and similar establishments could be found from the Mediterranean coast all the way to England.
In the 1700s a number of magnificent new casinos were opened – the first of their kind in Europe – including the stunning Baden-Baden casino in Germany, a fine example of a gambling house opened in 1748, and which operates to this day. However, the most legendary European casino would have to be the supremely glamorous Monte Carlo Casino in Monaco, which opened in 1863 and has since attracted the great, good and not so good with its opulent design, historic roulette wheels and stunning views over the Mediterranean Sea.
Meanwhile, over in North America, the casino was enjoying a somewhat colorful birth. Some of the first casinos were opening in New Orleans and along the Mississippi in the early 1800s, mostly in the form of saloons. Here miners, traders and pioneers would come to drink, gamble and engage in the occasional brawl – as the Westerns would have us believe. Many would have us believe that Brown’s Saloon, established on the corner of Utah, Wyoming and Colorado states in 1822, was North America’s first casino.
Gambling became illegal in the United States in the early part of the 20th century, so it wasn’t until the state of Nevada legalized gambling in 1931 that the first official casinos could open. This happened in none other than Las Vegas, and a legend was born.
Vegas expanded rapidly in the decades after the war, the inexorable pull of the tables and slots boosted further by the presence of hugely popular entertainment acts such as Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley. Today ‘Sin City’ is still going strong, despite stiff competition from alternative gambling destinations – first Atlantic City in the 1970s, and now the booming world of online casinos.
