Monaco Casino Fakta
| Casino de Monte-Carlo | |
|---|---|
Casino de Monte-Carlo in the Principality of Monaco | |
| Location | Monte Carlo, Monaco |
| Opening date | 1863; 157 years ago |
| Signature attractions | Opéra de Monte-Carlo |
| Casino type | Land-Based |
| Coordinates | 43°44′22″N7°25′44″E / 43.73944°N 7.42889°ECoordinates: 43°44′22″N7°25′44″E / 43.73944°N 7.42889°E |
| Website | www.montecarlosbm.com/en/casino-monaco/casino-monte-carlo |
The Monte Carlo Casino, officially named Casino de Monte-Carlo, is a gambling and entertainment complex located in Monaco. It includes a casino, the Opéra de Monte-Carlo, and the office of Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo.[1]
The Casino de Monte-Carlo is owned and operated by the Société des bains de mer de Monaco, a public company in which the Monaco government and the ruling royal family have a majority interest. The company also owns the principal hotels, sports clubs, foodservice establishments, and nightclubs throughout the Principality.
Monaco Gambling Laws and Online Casinos 23rd November 2015 Located on the French Riviera, Monaco is one of the smallest countries in the world. This sovereign city state, or microstate, is ruled by House Grimaldi, and is a glamorous bubble tucked in the south of France famed for its exquisite casinos. The Monte-Carlo Casino is an integral part of Monaco’s past and present and shouldn’t be missed on your visit to the principality. Culture Trip’s guide to this famous landmark provides you with everything you need to know, from a little history to some handy visiting tips.
The citizens of Monaco are forbidden to enter the gaming rooms of the casino.[2]
History[edit]
The idea of opening a gamblingcasino in Monaco belongs to Princess Caroline,[3] a shrewd, business-minded spouse of Prince Florestan. Revenues from the proposed venture were supposed to save the House of Grimaldi from bankruptcy. The ruling family's persistent financial problems became especially acute after the loss of tax revenue from two breakaway towns, Menton and Roquebrune, which declared independence from Monaco in 1848 and refused to pay taxes on olive oil and fruit imposed by the Grimaldis.
In 1854, Charles, Florestan's son and future Prince of Monaco, recruited a team of Frenchmen—writer Albert Aubert and businessman Napoleon Langlois—to devise a development plan and write a prospectus to attract 4 million francs needed to build a spa for the treatment of various diseases, a gambling casino modeled from the Bad Homburg casino, and English-styled villas. Granted the concession of 30 years to operate a bathing establishment and gaming tables, Aubert and Langlois opened the first casino at 14 December 1856 in Villa Bellevu. Intended to be only a temporary location, the building was a modest mansion in La Condamine.
In the late 1850s, Monaco was an unlikely place for a resort to succeed. The lack of roads needed to connect Monaco to Nice and the rest of Europe, and the absence of comfortable accommodations for visitors, as well as the concessionaires' failure to publicize the new resort, resulted in far fewer customers than was originally anticipated. Unable to raise the capital needed to operate the money-losing enterprise, Aubert and Langlois ceded their rights to Frossard de Lilbonne, who in turn passed it to Pierre Auguste Daval in 1857.[4]
During this initial period, the casino had been moved several times, until it finally ended up in the area called Les Spelugues (English: The Caves). Construction at this site began on 13 May 1858 to designs of the Parisian architect Gobineau de la Bretonnerie[5] and was completed in 1863. Gobineau de la Bretonnerie also designed the neighboring Hôtel de Paris Monte-Carlo (constructed in 1862).[6]
Although the casino began to make a profit in 1859, Daval was not up to the task. Just like his predecessors, he was incompetent and lacked the ability to bring the gambling enterprise to the scale envisioned by Princess Caroline.[7] Frustrated, she dispatched her private secretary M. Eyneaud to Germany, hoping to recruit François Blanc, a French entrepreneur and operator of the Bad Homburg casino. Blanc declined the offer. It took a lot of time and persuasion on the part of Princess Caroline to convince the Blancs to move to Monaco. Princess Caroline even appealed to Madame Blanc, whom she befriended during her first visit to Bad Homburg, with a suggestion that Monaco's mild climate would be good for Madame Blanc's ill health.
Finally, in 1863 François Blanc agreed to take over Monaco's casino business. To manage the new venture, a company—the Societe des Bains de Mer et du Cercle des Etrangers—was formed with capital of 15 million francs. Among the prominent investors were Charles-Bonaventure-François Theuret, Bishop of Monaco, and Cardinal Pecci, the future Pope Leo XIII. Blanc became the single majority stockholder in the company and received a 50-year concession, which would last until 1913. Blanc used his connections to quickly raise the required capital, and began the massive construction. On Blanc's insistence, the Spelugues area where the gambling complex was located was renamed to make it sound more attractive to casino visitors. A few suggestions were considered, and the name Monte Carlo was chosen in Prince Charles' honor.
In 1878–79, the casino building was transformed and expanded to designs of Jules Dutrou (1819–1885) and Charles Garnier, the architect who had designed the Paris opera house now known as the Palais Garnier. François Blanc knew Garnier because Blanc had provided a loan of at least 4.9 million gold francs to the cash-strapped government of the French Third Republic, so that the opera house, which had been started in 1861, could be completed. It had finally opened in 1875. The alterations to the Casino de Monte Carlo included the addition of a concert hall (designed by Garnier and later named the Salle Garnier), located on the side of the casino facing the sea, and the redesign and expansion of the gaming rooms and public spaces, mostly carried out by Dutrou on the side of the casino facing the Place du Casino, where the Hôtel de Paris Monte-Carlo and the were also located.[8]
In 1880–81, the casino was expanded again, to the east of Dutrou's Moorish Room, by the addition of the Trente-et-Quarante Gaming Room, also designed by Garnier. Subsequent additions and expansions, and the remodeling of the Trente-et-Quarante Gaming Room into the Salle des Américains, have mostly obliterated Garnier's contributions to this part of the casino, except for some ceiling decorations.[9] In 1898–99, the Salle Garnier was remodeled by architect Henri Schmit, primarily in the stage area, so that it would be more suitable for opera and ballet performances. However, much of Garnier's original facade and the interior design of the auditorium itself remain intact.[8] Despite all of the later additions and modifications, the casino still has a distinctly Beaux Arts style.
In 1921, the first Women’s Olympiad was held at the casino gardens.
Until recently, the Casino de Monte-Carlo has been the primary source of income for the House of Grimaldi and the Monaco economy.
Casino facilities[edit]
The casino has facilities to play a variety of games which include:
- Different kinds of roulette
1913 Gambler's fallacy[edit]
The most famous example of the gambler's fallacy occurred in a game of roulette at the Casino de Monte-Carlo in the summer of 1913, when the ball fell in black 26 times in a row. This was an extremely uncommon occurrence, although no more nor less common than any of the other 67,108,863 sequences of 26 red or black. Gamblers lost millions of francs betting against black, reasoning incorrectly that the streak was causing an 'imbalance' in the randomness of the wheel, and that it had to be followed by a long streak of red.[10]
Breaking the bank[edit]
- In 1873, Joseph Jagger gained the casino great publicity by 'breaking the bank at Monte Carlo' by discovering and capitalizing on a bias in one of the casino's roulette wheels. Technically, the bank in this sense was the money kept on the table by the croupier. According to an article in The Times in the late 19th century, it was thus possible to 'break the bank' several times. The 1892 song 'The Man Who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo', made famous by Charles Coborn, was probably inspired by the exploits of Charles Wells, who 'broke the bank' on many occasions on the first two of his three trips.
- According to the book Busting Vegas by Ben Mezrich, a team of blackjack players recruited from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology by team-leader Victor Cassius and Semyon Dukach attempted to break the bank at Monte Carlo with the assistance of a team-play-based system. The book describes how the management of Monte Carlo responded to the success of the team. According to Semyon the account in Busting Vegas is accurate aside from the fact that the team was made up of himself, Andy Bloch and another player he refers to as 'Katie'.[11]
In popular culture[edit]
- James Bond, a fictional British spy, is often associated with the Casino de Monte-Carlo.
- Monaco and its casino were the locations for a number of James Bond movies, including Never Say Never Again and GoldenEye, as well as for the 'Casino Royale' episode of the CBS's Climax!television show.
- The casino served as a filming location for the 2004 film Ocean's Twelve.[12]
- The casino makes an appearance in Condorman, The Castle of Cagliostro and Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted.
Other mentions[edit]
- The Monte Carlo method, a computational approach which relies on repeated random sampling to solve difficult numerical problems, was named after the Casino de Monte-Carlo by physicist Nicholas Metropolis.[13]
Gallery[edit]
The Casino de Monte-Carlo main entrance
View of the casino illuminated at dusk
The main hall
Roulette tables
The gardens behind the casino with the Salle Garnier in the background
South balcony
See also[edit]
References[edit]
Notes
- ^'Le Casino de Monte-Carlo joue la carte de l'ouverture'. nicematin.com. Archived from the original on 2012-08-05.
- ^The rule banning all Monegasques from gambling or working at the casino was an initiative of Princess Caroline, de facto regent of Monaco, who amended the rules on moral grounds. The idea that the casino was intended only for the foreigners was even emphasized in the name of the company that was formed to operate the gambling business, Societe des Bains de Mer et du Cercle des Etrangers (English: Company of Sea Bathing and of the Circles from Abroad). Source: Edwards, Anne (1992). The Grimaldis of Monaco: The Centuries of Scandal—The Years of Grace. William Morrow. ISBN978-0-688-08837-8..
- ^Edwards, Anne (1992). The Grimaldis of Monaco: The Centuries of Scandal - The Years of Grace. William Morrow. ISBN978-0-688-08837-8..
- ^'Chronology of Gambling (1852-1900)'. gamblinghistory.info.
- ^Folli & Merello 2004, pp. 112, 114.
- ^Denby p. 92.
- ^Sharma, K.K. (1999). Tourism and Culture. New Delhi: Sarup & Sons. ISBN81-7625-056-2.
- ^ abFolli & Merello 2004, pp. 116–117, 136; Bouvier 2004, pp. 190–192.
- ^Folli & Merello 2004, pp. 132–133.
- ^Lehrer, Jonah (2009). How We Decide. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. p. 66.
- ^'ThePOGG Interviews - Semyon Dukach - MIT Card Counting Team Captain'. Retrieved 10 November 2012.
- ^'OCEANS 12 - Production notes - About the production'. CinemaReview.com. Retrieved December 1, 2013.
- ^Metropolis 1987.
Sources
- Bonillo, Jean-Lucien, et al. (2004). Charles Garnier and Gustave Eiffel on the French and Italian Rivieras: The Dream of Reason (in English and French). Marseilles: Editions Imbernon. ISBN9782951639614.
- Bouvier, Béatrice (2004). 'Inventaires' in Bonillo et al. 2004, pp. 186–205.
- Folli, Andrea; Merello, Gisella (2004). 'The Splendour of the Garnier Rooms at the Monte Carlo Casino' in Bonillo et al. 2004, pp. 112–137.
- Denby, Elaine (2004). Grand Hotels: Reality and Illusion. London: Reaktion Books. ISBN9781861891211.
- Metropolis, N. (1987). 'The beginning of the Monte Carlo method'(PDF). Los Alamos Science (1987 Special Issue dedicated to Stanislaw Ulam): 125–130.
External links[edit]
| Wikimedia Commons has media related to Casino de Monte Carlo. |
Casual gamblers and high rollers alike will tell that that there is no place in the world they would more like to visit or go back to than Monaco. What is it that makes Monaco so special and why do so many people feel this city/state on the northern coast of the Mediterranean Sea is THE place to go when they want to gamble? Well, to keep it short and sweet, gambling has been legal in Monaco since 1854 because Prince Charles III needed to generate some wealth and the casinos here are spectacular.
The Le Grand Casino was solely responsible for Monaco’s complete economic turnaround as an entire ‘city within a city’ was built around the casino which included an opera house, the Oceanographic Museum and numerous jewelry stores. Today there are a total of five casinos in operation in Monaco and each has its own elegant and distinctive characteristics. We will review them below.
The Le Grand Casino de Monte Carlo
As stated above, the Le Grand Casino de Monte Carlo was opened in the mid 1800s. This spectacular casino centers on an atrium that is ringed by more than two dozen onyx columns. Inside is a total of three rooms with over 300 slot machines and 35 gaming tables. Each room is called a ‘salon’ and each offers something different from the other. The Les Super Prives is by ‘invitation only’ while the Chemin de Fer salon and the Salle des Ameriques salon is open to everyone. Inside the salons are towering ceilings, remarkable tapestries, ornate moldings and crystal chandeliers.
While you may hear tourists say that you can dress casually inside the Le Grand Casino don’t listen to them because you wouldn’t want to wear shorts and sandals inside the place that James Bond sipped his martinis at the bar. The action is fast paced and the clientele is wealthy and quite often very well-known. You could very well yourself rubbing elbows with a famous person inside this casino.
In addition to the classy casino, players will also have the opportunity to enjoy a grand stay at the Casino de Monte-Carlo Hotel. You will be able to choose between 7 different restaurants, with each one of them boasting mouth-watering cuisine, classy ambiance and great overall dining experience. Visitors of the casino and hotel will also have the opportunity to enjoy their time at one of the most popular wine cellars in the Riviera, the four bars of Casino de Monte-Carlo, the spa and the Country Club.
Le Casino Cafe de Paris
The Paris Casino also goes back a long way as it was built in 1854. Today it holds 1,200 slot and video poker machines and over a dozen table games. The casino is a true paradise for fans of slot machines who will enjoy the thrill of spinning the reels of various slots that offer quite the generous payouts.
If you decide to visit the casino, you will also have the chance to place your bets on blackjack or English Roulette and revel in a superb table games experience. The fun that the casino is offering does not end there as Casino Café de Paris has also prepared Texas Hold’em tables for all poker fans. Although both recreational players and high-rollers can expect a top-notch casino experience, those who are willing to risk more can further boost their adrenaline levels. With a dedicated VIP area, Casino Café de Paris is offering high-rollers the chance to bet on 12 high-limit video poker machines and revel in a truly exclusive casino experience.
Inside this luxurious and very pretty casino are also three outstanding restaurants: Le Grill, Le Cote Jardin and Le Louis XV. The Louis XV restaurant is a 3-star Michelin rated eatery owned by world renown chef Alain Ducasse.
The wine cellars in the Paris Casino hold an astonishing half a million bottles of fine wines – some are over two hundred years old. During the second World War, the wine cellars were well protected so that German soldiers would not be able to get inside and pilfer the rare wines being held there.
Monte Carlo Bay Casino
Monaco Casino Fakta Online
The Monte Carlo Bay Casino is the newest casino in Monte Carlo to open. In fact, before it opened there was not a single new casino addition to Monte Carlo for seven and a half decades. The more than 140 slots games inside the Monte Carlo Bay Casino use the ticket in/ticket out (TITO) technology. The TITO machines do away with coin hoppers and instead utilize on-board barcode scanners. Many casinos in the US use TITO machines but the technology is not very widely used in Southern Europe.
At this wonderful land-based casino, players will find a myriad of slot machines that ensure a fun, thrilling and hopefully fruitful experience. With a very low minimum bet, you have the chance to enjoy multiple spins and have a wonderful casino adventure.
In addition to the various slot machines, Monte Carlo Bay Casino is also offering Electronic Roulette. Very similar to the classic roulette, the game allows players to sit on a table and play either on their own or choose to switch to a live mode. Players will have the opportunity to make bets of different sizes as the versions of Electronic Roulette that you will find offer bets ranging between very low and quite high.
To make your experience even more enjoyable, the casino is also offering an open-air terrace area where you can bet on more than 100 slot machines and other fun casino games. There is also a second terrace where smoking is allowed and players can find 28 slot machines in that area.
Monte Carlo Sporting Club & Casino
The Monte Carlo Sporting Club & Casino is open during the summer months only – opening at the first of July and closing at the end of August. This casino has over 60 slot machines and 24 gaming tables which includes American and English Roulette, Chemin de Fer, Punto Banco, Craps, Blackjack and 30/40.
This is the perfect location if you are on the lookout for the full tourist-package adventure. In addition to offering quite the variety of casino games, this resort will also provide a wonderful vacation for its visitors. Monte-Carlo Sporting Club is well-known for hosting various musical concerts and shows that provide top-notch entertainment to Monaco visitors.
In addition to being the season when the casino is operating, summer is also the time for the Monte-Carlo Sporting Summer Festival. Ever since it was created in 1974, the summer festival is a host for numerous huge stars that have shone on the stages of Monte-Carlo Sporting Club. While you enjoy your gambling time at the casino, you can also see some of your favorite music celebrities igniting the stage at this wonderful location.
Whenever you are planning your trip to Monaco, make sure to check the upcoming concerts at Monte-Carlo Sporting Club and you might have the chance to listen to one of your favorite pop, rock or opera stars.
Sun Casino
The Sun Casino is located inside the Monte Carlo Grand Hotel. Here there are 450 slot machines and 27 table games on offer. This is a very trendy casino that dishes out a whole lot of festive ambiance and which offers free admittance to anyone over the age of eighteen.
You cannot deny that when you hear the word ‘casino’, Las Vegas is the first destination to pop up in your mind. If that is, however, way too far for you, in Monaco, you have the chance to enjoy a casino experience that comes pretty close to the Sin City one. Many will describe Sun Casino as the most American casino in Monaco since it is offering the glitz and glamour you can witness in many brick-and-mortar Las Vegas casinos.
As many players enjoy the thrill that spinning reels bring, Sun Casino offers a wide variety of slot machines. You can enjoy plenty of games that incorporate numerous winning lines, special symbols and bonus games.
Monaco Casino Facts
At Sun Casino, you will also have the chance to enjoy various table games that will fit the taste of different casino fans. If you enjoy betting on the game of 21, you will find a blackjack table at Sun Casino where you will be able to play the classic card games and hopefully stack up generous payouts. There is also the option to play Electronic Blackjack on the touchscreen tables of Sun Casino and challenge the virtual croupiers of the game.
If you enjoy playing roulette, you will be able to bet on standard English Roulette with just one 0 on the wheel. Alternatively, you can also join a table where you can play Electronic Roulette. The game is similar to the classic roulette version, however, it is played on a screen and players are free to choose to play on their own or bet on a live mode of the game.
Punto Banco and Texas Hold’em Poker are other of the table games that you will find at Sun Casino. They will allow you to fully enjoy your Vegas-like gaming experience at this casino. To make things even more gripping, there is also the option to place a Split Aces bet on the blackjack table. If your bet is successful, you will enjoy a jackpot prize that can make your casino adventure extremely rewarding.
Monaco Casino Fakta Film
If you love to gamble and enjoy spectacular, lavish and beautiful surroundings, then you must make a trip to Monaco. The dining experiences awaiting here are world class and the gambling is full-tilt inside some of the world’s most well-known and revered casinos.