Casino History and Milestones
The Casino - where all the big games are played. Its history is a deep and as varied as any others, filled with rich textures of the times. From an Italian word to a term known worldwide, it has grown with the times, keeping up with the ever accelerating speed of today's society. While an exact and precise time line of the history of casinos cannot be made, milestones can be found.
The term casino itself used to mean, summerhouse or pavilion built for pleasure. In Venice, one of the first known casinos was established in 1638. Later on, the term casino began to encompass more than gambling and could applied to any activity which was pleasurable or fun, such as the Newport Casino in Rhode Island, which included a tennis club and theatre, among other things. Back then, casinos were not just for the risk minded - they were for pleasure. Use as a theatre or banquet hall was quite common for a casino. To this day, some casinos are not strictly for gambling - a particular casino in Finland was a spa resort and is currently a restaurant.
Gambling itself has no known exact origin. The first accounts on it are from 2300 B.C. by the Chinese, but it probably started even earlier than that. The Greeks, the Macedonians, France and England - each of these places' histories are rife with games of chance. Before the casino came to house these games of chance in America, saloons or the bar rooms were the places to be. Wanderers and adventurers in the wild west could put up their feet in these locations, talk to others and join an often friendly game of poker. Later on, gambling became outlawed and illegal - a fact quickly fixed in1931, when gambling was legalized in Nevada and Las Vegas, giving birth to Sin City. Atlantic City would join, years later.
In 1765, the very first reported legal casino opened in Switzerland. In 1941 the El Rancho Vegas Hotel-Casino was built, spurring the growth of gambling in that area. This later resulted in the creation of the Las Vegas Strip. When the internet's prominence began its long and steady rise, so did the gambling online. Casinos brought to the comfort of your own home were profitable and is currently a booming industry.
Every time a person steps into a casino, they become a part of history. Spin the dice, play the devil's game and bet on a good hand - you may become the next step and milestone of casino history.