Il Ridotto (
Italian
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance language
*** Regional It ...
: "The Private Room") was a wing of Venice's
Palazzo Dandolo near the church of
San Moisè. In 1638, it was converted at the behest of Venice's city
leader
Leadership, both as a research area and as a practical skill, encompasses the ability of an individual, group or organization to "lead", influence or guide other individuals, teams, or entire organizations. The word "leadership" often gets view ...
s into a government-owned
gambling-house. Il Ridotto was the site of the West's first public, legal mercantile
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 ...
, opening several centuries after some gambling establishments in China.
Etymology and usage
The term "ridotto" (plural: "ridotti") comes from the Italian word "ridurre", meaning to "close off" or "make private". Whatever its etymology, it ordinarily meant the foyer of a theater, where people would go for refreshments during intermissions. It also referred to several illegal, privately owned gambling clubs that offered games of chance to members of Venice's nobility in the city's
Rialto
The Rialto is a central area of Venice, Italy, in the '' sestiere'' of San Polo. It is, and has been for many centuries, the financial and commercial heart of the city. Rialto is known for its prominent markets as well as for the monumental R ...
District. These clubs came into being after the Venetian authorities attempted to ban games of chance that had spontaneously sprung up in the city's streets. Realizing it could not effectively prevent citizens from wagering on dice and card games, the
Great Council of Venice
The Great Council or Major Council ( it, Maggior Consiglio; vec, Mazor Consegio) was a political organ of the Republic of Venice between 1172 and 1797. It was the chief political assembly, responsible for electing many of the other political off ...
opened its "Ridotto" in 1638 on the occasion of the city's annual Spring Carnival.
Casino Era
According to the casino's original charter, access to Il Ridotto was open to the public. However, due to its high stakes and formal dress code, only nobles could afford to play at the casino's tables; one such discriminating injunction, for instance, was that players had to wear three-cornered hats and masks in order to participate in Il Ridotto's games; less affluent Venetians were thereby prohibited from making wagers at the casino's tables.
As for games, Il Ridotto is known to have offered
biribi
Biribi, biribissi (in Italian), or cavagnole (in French), was an Italian game of chance similar to roulette, played for low stakes, that was banned in 1837. It was played on a board on which the numbers 1 to 70 are marked.
The players put their ...
and
basetta. Biribi was a lottery-like game in which players placed bets on one of 70 possible outcomes. A casino employee, the "banker", would then draw a number from a bag, and anyone who had bet on that number would win the game's pot. The game featured a built-in
vigorish
Vigorish (also known as ''juice'', ''under-juice'', the ''cut'', the ''take'', the ''margin'', the ''house edge'' or simply the ''vig'') is the fee charged by a bookmaker (or ''bookie'') for accepting a gambler's wager. In American English, it can ...
whereby a winning player only collected 64 times his original bet; considering that every outcome in the game gave only roughly a 1 percent chance of winning for any given bet, this meant that the house at Il Ridotto enjoyed nearly a 10 percent vigorish on the game.
The most popular game at Il Ridotto, however, was the card game basetta. This game was a cross between
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 fam ...
,
poker
Poker is a family of comparing card games in which players wager over which hand is best according to that specific game's rules. It is played worldwide, however in some places the rules may vary. While the earliest known form of the game wa ...
, and
gin rummy and offered winning players 60 times their wagers in payout. In later years, it was replaced by card game
faro, which would gain even greater popularity in the U.S.
Francesco Guardi
Francesco Lazzaro Guardi (; 5 October 1712 – 1 January 1793) was an Italian painter, nobleman, and a member of the Venetian School. He is considered to be among the last practitioners, along with his brothers, of the classic Venetian school of ...
Pietro Longhi - De speelbank (Il ridotto).jpg, ''Il Ridotto'' by Pietro Longhi
Pietro Longhi (1702 or November 5, 1701 – May 8, 1785) was a Venetian painter of contemporary genre scenes of life.
Biography
Pietro Longhi was born in Venice in the parish of Saint Maria, first child of the silversmith Alessandro Falca and ...
Pietro Longhi - Il Ridotto - WGA13405.jpg, ''Il Ridotto'' by Longhi
Architecture
The wing of the San Moisè Palace in which the Ridotto originally operated was four stories tall and featured a long entrance hall, dining rooms and other fineries like work from artist
Gerolamo Colonna. Its gaming tables, meanwhile, were primarily situated in its upper floors.
Closing
In 1774, Venetian reformer Giorgio Pisani proposed the city close the Ridotto "to preserve the piety, sound discipline and moderate behavior". Pisani's motion passed by an overwhelming majority and the casino closed its doors the same year.
References
{{coord missing, Italy
Casinos in Italy
1638 establishments in the Republic of Venice
1774 disestablishments
1638 establishments in Italy