A brief History of the Casino
“A brief History of the Casino”
Casinos have been around for a long, long time. But even before there were casinos there has been gambling. In fact, humanity has been gambling probably as long as it has existed, although now we do it in a much more ‘formalised’ way than we might have done in the past. Because of this, it’s interesting to know just how the casino did actually come about, and how it changed the way we gamble completely on new online casino sites today.
The First Casino
It is thought that the earliest form of gambling can be traced back to 2300BC and took place in China. Of course, it’s likely there was a lot more gambling going on elsewhere and before this, but this is where the evidence first begins; the evidence in this case is gambling tiles. Then there are the Egyptian dice that can be dated back to 1500BC.
It’s clear that gambling has always been popular, but amazingly it wasn’t until 1638 that the first real casino was built. Called the Casino di Venezia, it can still be visited today. It’s located in Venice, Italy, and was created by the Italian government as a way to make some extra money during carnival season. It was so popular that it was never closed.
More Casinos
So you might think that, after this, many more casinos would have been built. After all, it was clear to see that it was popular, and that it would bring in a lot of money in taxes – it might even boost the tourist trade. Yet, strangely enough (and probably because of the strict morals of the time that saw gambling as sinful) casinos didn’t really start to be built until the 18th century. When they did start, however, they started in earnest.
Monte Carlo was probably the first city that was well-known for casinos, and if you wanted something extravagant and opulent, this was the place to go.
Interestingly, these first casinos, the ones built in this initial wave, were the reserve of the rich. Only those who had a certain amount of money (what we would term as ‘high rollers’ today) could be allowed in, and the general public would have to make do with back street gambling games and illegal gambling dens.
All this building was happening in Europe, which is where the love of casinos first took off. America lagged behind a long way. If you wanted to gamble in America in the 18th and 19th centuries, you would need to find a saloon bar, for example. Nothing was made formal until much later.
Las Vegas
So we’ve just learned that America lagged behind when it came to developing casinos. Yet once that development started, the US leapt ahead of Europe and became famous for its gambling buildings. Las Vegas was the first step. The building of Las Vegas began in 1941, and what had been a small town in the desert soon became the ideal spot for all things gambling. The world had never seen anything like this before, and although Monte Carlo was full of casinos, these were extravagant and grand. The ones in Las Vegas, while still being impressive, were much more something that the ordinary people could use. And use them they did.
Today
Today there are still casinos being built around the world. Some are huge and opulent, and others are created on a much smaller scale. Either way, if you want to gamble you should be able to find somewhere at least relatively nearby.
However, the rate of these casinos being built has slowed considerably, and this is likely to be because of the move to online casinos. Why build an entire building when you can build a website and make more profits with less hassle?
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