Gambling is probably as old as civilization itself. Organized gambling, in turn, is a completely different matter. In this post, you will learn three fun facts about Casinos.
For ages, games of chance and bets were pretty much “free for all”, until the leaders of Venice, a city-state at the time, decided they had to regulate gambling, especially during Carnival season. Thus, they opened Il Ridotto, a wing of one of the city’s palazzos, to serve as the first regulated gambling establishment in history. The world’s casino prototype opened its doors in 1638 and functioned for more than 130 years.
Here are some more fun facts about Casinos that you probably didn’t know about casinos.
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From saloons to Vegas
Saloons were the entertainment hubs of the small Western town back in the day – they offered drinks, company, music, and occasional shows to their patrons. And, of course, gambling. The first saloon was opened in 1822 in Wyoming – and by the late 19th century, they have become widespread across the United States.
(Las Vegas in 1911)
Las Vegas was little more than a water stop on the wagon trail (and later the railroad) linking Los Angeles and Albuquerque in the early years of the 20th century. In time, a small town (with a saloon, of course) emerged there, and its importance started to grow. In 1910, when a wave of gambling prohibition swept across the West, Las Vegas had a diversified economy – in the coming decades, in turn, it almost became bankrupt. The building of the Hoover Dam revitalized the city, growing its population from 5,000 to 25,000, and making it a home for large-scale entertainment. And gambling – the state of Nevada legalized it in 1931, before the first paved street and traffic light emerged in the city of Las Vegas. After the dam was finished, and the workers moved on, Las Vegas blossomed again as a tourist city filled with hotels, casinos, restaurants, entertainment – and lights.
The online wildfire
Like all other forms of entertainment, gambling also found its way online – except it did it before others. A year after the internet went mainstream, the first online casino was up and running, thanks to Microgaming, the company behind the games and services at JackpotCity online casino. After the early birds broke the ice, online gambling started spreading like wildfire: in a few years, several hundred gambling outlets emerged all over the world.
Today, there are over 2000 of them, covering everything from casino games, bingo, poker, and lotteries, and further hundreds of sites also offer sports betting services.
The game that’s everywhere
There are more than 700 brick-and-mortar casinos around the world, and more than 2,000 online, and they all have one thing in common: they have at least one roulette game on the premises.
Roulette is perhaps the most famous casino game, and also one of the oldest – legend has it, the game was invented by French mathematician Blaise Pascal in the late 17th century when he tried to build a perpetual motion machine.
The details given above are some fun facts about Casinos. Every gambling den and every high-profile casino resort, not to mention the many online gaming outlets, has at least one roulette table. Even the real-life gaming clubs in areas where roulette tables are banned (there are some), there is a virtual roulette terminal that the gamblers can use.
