Casino du Liban is a

casino A casino is a facility for certain types of gambling. Casinos are often built near or combined with hotels, resorts, restaurants, retail shopping, cruise ships, and other tourist attractions. Some casinos are also known for hosting live entertai ...

located in Maameltein, in

Lebanon Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to Lebanon–Syria border, the north and east and Israel to Blue ...

and is 22 km north of

Beirut Beirut, french: Beyrouth is the capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, which makes it the third-largest city in the Levant region. The city is situated on a peninsula at the midpoint o ...

. With an area of about 35,000 square meters, the casino has around 400

slot machine A slot machine (American English), fruit machine (British English) or poker machine (Australian English and New Zealand English) is a gambling machine that creates a game of chance for its customers. Slot machines are also known pejoratively a ...

s and 60 gaming tables. It has a showroom, night club, theater, banquet facility and five restaurants. The casino was first opened in 1959. It closed in 1989 during the

Lebanese Civil War The Lebanese Civil War ( ar, الحرب الأهلية اللبنانية, translit=Al-Ḥarb al-Ahliyyah al-Libnāniyyah) was a multifaceted armed conflict that took place from 1975 to 1990. It resulted in an estimated 120,000 fatalities a ...

and reopened in 1996 after a $50 million reconstruction and refurbishment project. The Casino du Liban is majority-owned by Intra Investment Company, a Lebanese government-controlled company which is the remainder of the former Intra Bank, with the remainder of the shares held by private companies and individuals. The casino is managed by

London Clubs International Metropolitan Gaming is a British gaming company that operates eleven casinos in the United Kingdom, Egypt, and South Africa. It is owned by Silver Point Capital. The casinos began as part of Grand Metropolitan, and later became an independent com ...

, a subsidiary of Caesars Entertainment. Performers at the Casino's night club included Duke Ellington,

Danny Thomas Danny Thomas (born Amos Muzyad Yaqoob Kairouz; January 6, 1912 – February 6, 1991) was an American actor, singer, nightclub comedian, producer, and philanthropist. He created and starred in one of the most successful and long-running sitc ...

, Jacques Brel, and

Julio Iglesias Julio José Iglesias de la Cueva (; born 23 September 1943) is a Spanish singer, songwriter and former professional footballer. Iglesias is recognized as the most commercially successful Spanish singer in the world and one of the top record ...

. Visitors at the casino included King

Hussein of Jordan Hussein bin Talal ( ar, الحسين بن طلال, ''Al-Ḥusayn ibn Ṭalāl''; 14 November 1935 – 7 February 1999) was King of Jordan from 11 August 1952 until his death in 1999. As a member of the Hashemite dynasty, the royal family of ...

, Albert II, Prince of Monaco, the

Shah of Iran This is a list of monarchs of Persia (or monarchs of the Iranic peoples, in present-day Iran), which are known by the royal title Shah or Shahanshah. This list starts from the establishment of the Medes around 671 BCE until the deposition of th ...

Aristotle Onassis Aristotle Socrates Onassis (, ; el, Αριστοτέλης Ωνάσης, Aristotélis Onásis, ; 20 January 1906 – 15 March 1975), was a Greek-Argentinian shipping magnate who amassed the world's largest privately-owned shipping fleet and wa ...

, Omar Sharif, and Osama bin Laden In his memoir of the international hotel business, ''Shadow of the Sun: Travels And Adventures in the World of Hotels'', Peter J. Venison wrote that the Casino du Liban "was elegant, yet the cabaret was spectacular and rivaled anything that Las Vegas could offer". He also described it as a backdrop of a James Bond novel where clientele from the richest elite of European and Arabian societies ventured into the casino in formal black-tie attire.Venison, Peter J. ''Shadow of the Sun: Travels And Adventures in the World of Hotels'', page 235

In literature

*''Captain from Corfu'' by Muriel Maddox :"A tour of the city was planned and that evening dinner at the Casino du Liban." *''The Man in the Middle'' by Hugh Atkinson :"The Casino du Liban was set on a cliff, outside Beirut on the coast road." *''Danger and Opportunity: An American Ambassador's Journey Through the Middle East'' by Edward Djerejian, former United States Ambassador to Syria and Israel :"One of my early impressions of the contrasts of life in Lebanon was my first visit to the Casino du Liban—a luxurious gambling and entertainment spot in maamlten on the Mediterranean coast north of Beirut."

References

External links

Casino du Liban official site

Casino du Liban presentation and panorama views

Your Money or Your Life--Lebanese Risk Both : Gamblers Take a Chance at New Casinos in W. Beirut ''Los Angeles Times'' January 05, 1986
Casinos in Lebanon Casinos completed in 1959 1959 establishments in Lebanon {{Lebanon-struct-stub