Casino games

» Login here » Password recovery
First name:
Last name:
E-mail:
Password:
Confirm password:
Type the code:	New code

Zeus, Hades and Poseidon are said to have split the Universe by sharing heaven, hell and sea with the throw of dices; Roman soldiers played the Christ's tunic with dices at the bottom of the Cross.

During antiquity, Greek and Roman nobilities went to spas to rest their body and enjoy time with games. With the expansion of the Roman Empire, so did the spa towns and their intrinsic gambling activities.
From the Middle Ages to the 18th century, gambling activities moved from the exclusive spa resorts to become part of the social life of the urban rich and famous. Governments then started to regulate all gaming activities to preserve the-man-in-the-street's solvency they relied upon. Card games and dices were particularly "en vogue" at that time. 
 
In 1626 in Venice, for the first time a public gambling house was legalized. Soon the high Venitian society met in so-called little-houses or "casini" to indulge in everything from business dealings, politics, gambling and more carnal pleasures. "Casino" became synonymous with vice and perdition.
Taking Venice as a model, gambling houses spreaded in many spa resorts throughout Europe. The most famous of all would give its name to the concept : Spa in Belgium where the casino activity will be officially recognized in the 17th century.
Gambling houses became an official, organized and legal activity, patronized by the European aristocracy and bourgeoisie.
 
After the fall into disgrace of Venice, Spa boomed with new casinos, new games, longer opening hours (up to 12 hours a day) while casinos also thrived in France, Germany and England.

The 19th century marked the official legalization of casinos by Napoleon in 1806. Casinos introduced security, high standard, quality service, comfort, luxury; managers started to restrict access to a selected clientele. The myth of casino was born with stories of successes, heavy losses, bankruptcies, suicides, noble attitudes, fortunes made and lost overnight... Gambling became a fashionable hobby and casinos places to be and to be seen , a showcase of the rich and famous's wealth. 

In 1837, all casinos in France were declared illegal. By opposition, in Germany, they prospered like in Baden-Baden, Wiesbaden or Bad-Homburg where for the first time chips were used as the intruments to wager whereas the casino innovated with the introduction of the first single-zero roulette table. 

In 1860, Monaco was a principality in great financial troubles when a man named François Blanc proposed to open casino to bail it out. Three years later, the "Société des Bains de Mer" was born with the opening of the casino in what was to become the most famous and glamorous gambling place on earth, Monte-Carlo.   
The British aristocracy soon discovered the French Riviera for its winter holidays and Monte-Carlo for its gambling thrills. New rooms were opened in the casino, higher limits were reached, fortunes were made and lost everyday; in 1899, "salons privés" (private rooms) were opened with no bet limits.

In the United States of America, after a brief attempt to legalize gambling on the riverboats of Louisiana in 1890, the end of the Prohibition in 1932 led to the extensive development of illegal gambling "joints" controlled by the mob, with the notable exception of the State of Nevada where gambling was legalized in 1931. Benjamin Siegel, alias "Bugsy", would be the founder of the modern Las Vegas we all know today as the World's Gambling Mecca.  
In Asia, gambling "dens" started operating in China and Saigon (Vietnam) and of course in Macau where casino houses opened as early as 1850. However, it is in 1962 when the "Sociedade de Turismo e Diversoes de Macau" won the monopoly for the casino licences that Macau became a real gambling empire.

Today, very few jurisdictions on earth are still immune from casinos. Throughout the five continents, the games of roulette, black-jack, baccara and the likes have all gamblers dreaming about making fortunes ..or simply enjoying a great moment of fun.