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. The Casino de Monte-Carlo is owned and operated by the

Société des bains de mer de Monaco The Société des Bains de Mer (SBM; en, Society of Sea Baths), officially the Société Anonyme des Bains de Mer et du Cercle des Etrangers à Monaco (; en, Society of Sea Baths and of the Circle of Foreigners in Monaco), is a publicly traded ...

, 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. The citizens of Monaco are forbidden to enter the gaming rooms of the casino.

History

The idea of opening a gambling casino in Monaco originated with Princess Caroline, a shrewd, business-minded spouse of Prince Florestan. Revenues from the proposed venture were supposed to save the

House of Grimaldi The House of Grimaldi ( , also , , ) is the current reigning house of the Principality of Monaco. The house was founded in 1160 by Grimaldo Canella in Genoa and became the ruling house of Monaco when Francesco Grimaldi captured Monaco in 1297 ...

from

bankruptcy Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debtor ...

. 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 Charles is a masculine given name predominantly found in English language, English and French language, French speaking countries. It is from the French form ''Charles'' of the Proto-Germanic, Proto-Germanic name (in runic alphabet) or ''*k ...

, 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 Bad Homburg vor der Höhe () is the district town of the Hochtaunuskreis, Hesse, on the southern slope of the Taunus mountains. Bad Homburg is part of the Frankfurt Rhein-Main Regional Authority, Frankfurt Rhein-Main urban area. The town's offic ...

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 A resort (North American English) is a self-contained commercial establishment that tries to provide most of a vacationer's wants, such as food, drink, swimming, lodging, sports, entertainment, and shopping, on the premises. The term ''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. During this initial period, the casino had been moved several times, until it finally ended up in the area called ''Les Spelugues'' ( en, The Caves). Construction at this site began on 13 May 1858 to designs of the Parisian architect Gobineau de la Bretonnerie and was completed in 1863. Gobineau de la Bretonnerie also designed the neighboring Hôtel de Paris Monte-Carlo (constructed in 1862). 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. Frustrated, she dispatched her private secretary M. Eyneaud to Germany, hoping to recruit François Blanc, a French entrepreneur and operator of the

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 Concession may refer to: General * Concession (contract) (sometimes called a concession agreement), a contractual right to carry on a certain kind of business or activity in an area, such as to explore or develop its natural resources or to opera ...

, 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 Charles III (Charles Philip Arthur George; born 14 November 1948) is King of the United Kingdom and the 14 other Commonwealth realms. He was the longest-serving heir apparent and Prince of Wales and, at age 73, became the oldest person to ...

' 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 The Palais Garnier (, Garnier Palace), also known as Opéra Garnier (, Garnier Opera), is a 1,979-seatBeauvert 1996, p. 102. opera house at the Place de l'Opéra in the 9th arrondissement of Paris, France. It was built for the Paris Opera from ...

. 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 Salle is the French word for 'hall', 'room' or 'auditorium', as in: *Salle des Concerts Herz, a former Paris concert hall *Salle Favart, theatre of the Paris Opéra-Comique *Salle Le Peletier, former home of the Paris Opéra *Salle Pleyel, a Paris ...

), 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 Café de Paris were also located.Folli & Merello 2004, pp. 116–117, 136; Bouvier 2004, pp. 190–192. 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.Folli & Merello 2004, pp. 132–133. 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. 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

and the Monegasque economy.

Facilities

The casino has facilities to play a variety of games which include: * Different kinds of

roulette Roulette is a casino game named after the French word meaning ''little wheel'' which was likely developed from the Italian game Biribi''.'' In the game, a player may choose to place a bet on a single number, various groupings of numbers, the ...

Stud poker Stud poker is any of a number of poker variants in which each player receives a mix of face-down and face-up cards dealt in multiple betting rounds. Stud games are also typically '' non-positional'' games, meaning that the player who bets first ...

Blackjack Blackjack (formerly Black Jack and Vingt-Un) is a casino banking game. The most widely played casino banking game in the world, it uses decks of 52 cards and descends from a global family of casino banking games known as Twenty-One. This fami ...

Trente et Quarante Trente et Quarante (Thirty and Forty), also called Rouge et Noir (Red and Black), is a 17th-century gambling card game of French origin played with cards and a special table. It is rarely found in US casinos, but still very popular in Continental ...

* Craps * Baccarat *

Video poker Video poker is a casino game based on five-card draw poker. It is played on a computerized console similar in size to a slot machine. History Video poker first became commercially viable when it became economical to combine a television-like moni ...

* Slot machines

1913 gambler's fallacy

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, an extremely uncommon occurrence. 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.

Breaking the bank

* In 1873,

Joseph Jagger Joseph Hobson Jagger (2 September 1830 – 25 April 1892) was an English textile industry businessman from Yorkshire, who in around 1881 is said to have "broken the bank at Monte Carlo" by identifying and exploiting biases in the wheels of the ...

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

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 ''Busting Vegas'' (stylized as ''Busting Vega$'') is a 2005 book by Ben Mezrich about a group of MIT card counters and blackjack players commonly known as the MIT Blackjack Team. The subtitle of the original, hardcover edition was ''The MIT Whi ...

'' 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 Andrew Elliot Bloch (born June 1, 1969) is a professional poker player. He holds two electrical engineering degrees from MIT and a JD from Harvard Law School. Blackjack While studying at MIT, Bloch became part of the MIT blackjack team, fea ...

and another player he refers to as "Katie".

In popular culture

* 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 ''Never Say Never Again'' is a 1983 spy film directed by Irvin Kershner. The film is based on the 1961 James Bond novel '' Thunderball'' by Ian Fleming, which in turn was based on an original story by Kevin McClory, Jack Whittingham, and Flemi ...

'' and '' GoldenEye'', as well as for the " Casino Royale" episode of CBS's ''Climax!'' television show. * The casino was a filming location for the music video for

Kylie Minogue Kylie Ann Minogue (; born 28 May 1968) is an Australian singer, songwriter and actress. She is the highest-selling female Australian artist of all time, having sold over 80 million records worldwide. She has been recognised for reinve ...

’s 2000 single " On a Night Like This". * The casino served as a filming location for the 2004 film ''

Ocean's Twelve ''Ocean's Twelve'' is a 2004 American heist comedy film directed by Steven Soderbergh and written by George Nolfi. The second installment in the ''Ocean's'' film trilogy franchise and the sequel to ''Ocean's Eleven'' (2001), the film features an ...

''. * The casino makes an appearance in '' Condorman'', '' The Castle of Cagliostro'' and '' Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted''.

Other mentions

* 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. * CASINO, a quantum Monte Carlo method * Casino, a portion of the

Circuit de Monaco Circuit de Monaco is a street circuit laid out on the city streets of Monte Carlo and La Condamine around the harbour of the Principality of Monaco. It is commonly, and even officially, referred to as "Monte Carlo" because it is largely inside ...

of the

Monaco Grand Prix The Monaco Grand Prix (french: Grand Prix de Monaco) is a Formula One motor racing event held annually on the Circuit de Monaco, in late May or early June. Run since 1929, it is widely considered to be one of the most important and prestigiou ...

Gallery

File:Monaco-CasinoMonteCarlo.jpg, The Casino de Monte-Carlo main entrance File:Monte Carlo Casino at Dusk.JPG, View of the casino illuminated at dusk File:Monte Carlo Casino, Monaco - interior- (2) (32774947955).jpg, The main hall File:Casino de Monte-Carlo (49582351802).jpg, Roulette tables in the Salle Europe File:Monaco opera 034.jpg, The gardens behind the casino with the

in the background Casino de Montecarlo, Mónaco, 2016-06-23, DD 06.jpg, South balcony

References

Notes 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. . ** 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. . *

External links

* {{Authority control 1879 establishments in Monaco Art Nouveau architecture in Monaco Casinos completed in the 19th century Casinos in Monaco Monte Carlo Second Empire architecture Tourist attractions in Monaco Charles Garnier buildings