The casino, as a public place where gambling is permitted and supervised by the state, has a history of almost four centuries. Two of the earliest documented examples, Venice and Paris, show authorities legalising games they could not prevent, in order to keep them under control and to raise revenue.
The word "casino"
According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, the word comes from the Italian casino, "little house", a diminutive of casa, "house". In English it is attested from 1744, meaning "public room for music or dancing". The sense of "building for aristocratic gambling" appears by 1820, first in an Italian context.
Venice, 1638: the Ridotto
According to the city's civic museums, Venice was the first city to open, in 1638, a public place where people could gamble: the Ridotto at San Moisè, in the Palazzo Dandolo. The city already had a tradition in the field: from the 15th century it was one of the first producers of playing cards, with a first factory recorded in 1391. Among the widespread games of chance, alongside cards and dice, the source mentions biribissi, bassetta, sbaraglino, gioco reale and gioco della mea.
According to the Wikipedia encyclopedia, the Ridotto was opened by the Great Council of Venice, which had realised it could not prevent wagering on dice and card games; legalisation served public order and government revenue. It operated during the carnival season, and players wore masks and three-cornered hats. Access was open to the public, but high stakes and a formal dress code meant that only nobles could afford to play. In 1774 the reformer Giorgio Pisani proposed its closure, invoking the need to preserve "piety, sound discipline and moderate behaviour"; the motion passed by an overwhelming majority and the Ridotto closed the same year.
Paris: the Palais-Royal
After 1789 the centre of gambling in Paris became the Palais-Royal. The historian R. T. Barnhart shows, in a 1992 study, that by 1791 the building housed over a hundred illicit gambling operations. In 1806 Napoleon legalised the main clubs, to bring the situation under control and to raise taxes. From 1819 to 1837, according to the same study, the gross takings of these clubs reached 137 million francs. In 1837 the opponents of gambling obtained their closure, and the National Guard had to be called out to evict the gamblers who refused to leave.
Homburg and Monte-Carlo
In the 19th century, the twin brothers François and Louis Blanc opened a gaming house in 1841 at Homburg, in Germany, where the roulette wheel lost its double zero (see History of roulette).
In the Principality of Monaco, according to the portal of the Monegasque government, Prince Charles III imagined a district devoted to sea bathing and leisure. In 1863 François Blanc received the privilege of operating games in Monaco, and in 1866 the prince gave his name to the new town that had grown up on the Spélugues plateau around the casino: Monte-Carlo. The same source states that the revenue brought by Monte-Carlo allowed the Principality to pursue economic diversification projects.
Nevada, 1931
In the United States, gambling had been outlawed in Nevada in 1910. On 19 March 1931 Governor Fred B. Balzar signed Assembly Bill 98, sponsored by assemblyman Phil M. Tobin, which legalised gambling. According to the overview written by Emily Alward, legalisation came against the background of economic crisis: in 1930 the state's production of silver and other minerals had fallen to less than half of the previous year's figures, and the state was looking for other sources to replace the losses. At first, licensing was done by city or county officials, for a modest fee.
According to Nevada's control authority, the state legislature created a Gaming Control Board in 1955, within the Nevada Tax Commission, with the purpose of eliminating "the undesirable elements" in Nevada gaming and providing regulations for the licensing and operation of gaming.
New Jersey, 1976
In New Jersey, a first referendum on casino gambling, held on 5 November 1974, was defeated. A second one, on 2 November 1976, which limited gambling to the city limits of Atlantic City, was approved by a slim margin. The city's first casino opened on 26 May 1978, according to the Atlantic City public library.
What has remained
The examples above share the link between permission to gamble, authorisation by the state and taxation. For Romania, the development of the legal framework is described in Gambling regulation in Romania. Whatever the period, every casino game has a house edge built into its rules, explained in House edge and RTP.
Sources
- Online Etymology Dictionary, entry "casino".
- Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia, "Il gioco e l'azzardo", MUVE Stories series.
- Wikipedia (English), articles "Ridotto" and "Casino".
- R. T. Barnhart, "Gambling in revolutionary Paris — The Palais Royal: 1789–1838", Journal of Gambling Studies, vol. 8, no. 2, 1992 (abstract in the PubMed database).
- Wikipedia (German), article "François Blanc".
- Government of the Principality of Monaco, "Histoire et Patrimoine" section, pages "Charles III", "François Blanc" and "Fondation de Monte-Carlo".
- Emily Alward, "Nevada Legalizes Gambling", EBSCO Research Starters, 2021.
- Nevada Gaming Control Board, "About Us" page.
- Atlantic City Free Public Library, "History of Casino Gambling in Atlantic City".