History Of Casinos And Gambling
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What is a casino? You can say that it is an Indoor amusement park for adults where they can entertain themselves; it includes lighted fountains, extravagant hotels, fancy themes, musical shows, and shopping facilities. While these things attract the guests’ attention, casinos would cease to exist if there weren’t the game of chance or gambling, which is the backbone of its existence.
Games like blackjack, slot machines, roulette, kino, crabs, Baccarat, and many more are played in casinos, whether land-based or online versions like Kingz Asia, which are very popular nowadays. In this article, we will follow back in the footsteps of the journey made by casinos and try to understand their origin and history.
The History
Gambling is undoubtedly older than recorded human history, with primitive produce known as astragali, cut-knuckle bones, and even carved six-sided dice found in the most ancient archaeological sites. The casino as a place for people to find various ways to gamble in the same vicinity did not develop until the 16th century. A craze of gambling swept Europe then, with Italian aristocrats often holding private parties in places known as ridotti. Which were private clubs for the affluent mass, but the popularity of gambling meant that it was the primary pastime. Gambling was illegal technically, but a ridotto was rarely bothered by legal authorities. Apparently, it was known when to expect the Italian Inquisition from the nobles. The lower classes were also gambling but lacked the fancy places the rich held.
In the year 1638, the government of Venice decided the construction of a gambling house to control it and earn some money from it as well. A four-story house called the Ridotto was made by them eventually. It has different gambling rooms with different types of foods and beverages to keep the gamblers satisfied and content. It has importance for two reasons:
- It was the first gambling house in the world that the government ran.
- It was the first gambling house that allowed the general public to gamble.
The clients were generally wealthy if you go by the high-stakes games, but in principle, Venice is the birthplace of the modern-day casino because of the Ridotto. With France inventing the most popular games we see in a modern-day casino and the initial idea being developed by the Italians, we can say that the modern-day casino has different roots, contributing to its versatile nature.
Gambling in the U.S.
Gambling in the United States went through ups and downs with the strong wave in the 1800s. “Wild west” culture introduced gambling on Mississippi river boats and frontier towns, and when in the early 20th century, modern conservativism came into existence, gambling was on the way out. In the year 1931, the state of Nevada legalized it. Soon, the gamblers were drawn to Reno, then Las Vegas, where the strip came into existence by the downtown gamblers. Atlantic City, as well as new jersey, brought legal gambling to the east coast in the 1970s with limited success.
