A brief history of the casino

If there is one thing that will always be true of the human race, it is that we absolutely love to gamble, whether that be on sport, bingo, card games or slot machines. Seriously, the amount of global revenue generated via the myriad of different gambling games in 2020 is nothing short of ludicrous. Online casinos like de.kingcasino.com alone generate well over 50 billion dollars of revenue, which when you compare it to other industries such as entertainment and fashion is pretty crazy. You might think that this terrifyingly huge amount of online casino revenue has taken away from the traditional brick and mortar establishments that we all know and love, however this isn’t the case either, because, broadly speaking, brick and mortar casinos are enjoying unprecedented levels of success in the 21st Century too.

And it is interesting actually, because traditional casinos – or any of any kind for that matter – haven’t actually been in existence for as long as you might think. For example, before the 17th Century casinos as we know them today simply did not exist, with people instead gambling in illegal taverns or bars. Even after the Casino di Venezia was built in the mid 1600s casinos didn’t exactly explode into popularity, it actually took more than a hundred years for them to properly spread across Europe and beyond. Much of this is down to state interference, and it is a common happening in the history of casino, as gambling was something that frightened a lot of governments, and still does today. Of course this fear stems more from the amount of money that the casino owners end up bringing in rather than the problems of addiction or gambling induced violence. Regardless, the history of casinos is a very interesting one, and if you would like to know more we would recommend reading ahead.

Gambling in the pre-casino era

So then, as we have already mentioned, the art of gambling has been around for a hell of a lot longer than the casino. In fact, historians believe that rudimentary forms of gambling were going on in China thousands of years before the birth of Christ. They found remains of tiles that look a lot like modern playing cards, pretty solid proof that humans were gambling many thousands of years ago.

The thing about gambling in the pre-casino era was that it was largely unrecognised by states, meaning that it always straddled the peculiar ground between legality and illegality. In many places it was just outright banned, especially in Medieval Europe’s period of intensive Christian worship. Of course this didn’t mean that people stopped gambling, the practise just got sent deeper underground, much like what happens in places like Seoul where gambling is still illegal today.   

Venice and the world’s first casino

After a while it became evident that, with so many people gambling, the state authorities had to get involved in some way in order to make it a safer experience for everyone involved. The first government to do this was that of the state of Venice, who decided to build the Casino di Venezia in the mid 1600s in order to give people a place to gamble throughout the harvest celebrations.

Very quickly it became apparent that the population loved this new establishment so much that there would be quite a bit of unrest if it were to close, so the Venetian authorities decided to keep it open indefinitely. And so the world’s first genuine casino was born.

The proliferation of the casino around Europe

Travellers and merchants who would visit Venice in the 17th Century were all struck by the Casino Di Venezia’s grandeur, and more importantly by the fact you could actually gamble there legally in plain sight. This in turn fuelled the hunger for more casinos across Europe, something that slowly started to happen as time went on.

One thing you must remember here is that Venice was an incredibly rich state back in the 17th Century, and this is one reason why it took a while for other states to take their lead – they simply didn’t have the money! 

Golden years of European casino

By the 1800s casinos had erupted across modern day Germany and France as well as Italy, and the western world was fully in the grip of a passionate love for casino gambling. One of the main things that drove this in the 1800s was the invention of the game we all know and love today: roulette.

Due to Blaise Pascal’s determination to make a perpetual motion machine back in the 1600s, other savvy engineers had noticed that they could co-opt his invention to make a gambling game, and so roulette was born. It proved to be so exciting that it was the catalyst for super casinos to start being built across Central Europe. 

Banning of casinos in the late 1800s

Roulette had a huge impact on the amount of revenue casinos were bringing in during the 1800s, and after a while this subsequently resulted in a heightened amount of attention coming from the authorities. They were unhappy that people such as the Blanc family were earning so much money from their casinos, and eventually casino gambling was banned in most places across the continent.

The Blanc family subsequently fled to Monte Carlo, one of the last places in Europe where gambling was actually legal. Their legacy there is still felt today, and it is one of the main reasons why Monte Carlo is such an affluent and casino rich place. 

Las Vegas and the casino resurgence

Gambling was banned in America too until the 1930s, where places such as Las Vegas first started becoming the casino meccas they are today. At first this city experienced a troubled relationship with gangsters and mafia bosses, however after the 1960s it would become the fully-fledged commercialised gambling metropolis that it is today. 

21st Century and online casino

Now, if we fast-forward to the 21st Century we find a completely new type of casino: online casino. What do you think will be next?