280px, Casino da Póvoa Francisco.almeida.23 on instagram. Casino da Póvoa (English: Póvoa Casino) 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

Póvoa de Varzim Póvoa de Varzim (, ) is a Portugal, Portuguese city in Norte Region, Portugal, Northern Portugal and sub-region of Greater Porto, from its city centre. It sits in a sandy coastal plain, a cuspate foreland, halfway between the Minho River, Minho ...

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

. It is a gaming and entertainment venue since early 1930s, the building has a Garnier-inspired modernist style and, since 1977, it is listed by IGESPAR, the Portuguese institute of national monuments. The table games most popular with gamblers are Banca Francesa, Roulette, Blackjack and

Baccarat Baccarat or baccara (; ) is a card game played at casinos. It is a comparing card game played between two hands, the "player" and the "banker". Each baccarat coup (round of play) has three possible outcomes: "player" (player has the higher score ...

. The casino has several bars, including a live performances

bar Bar or BAR may refer to: Food and drink * Bar (establishment), selling alcoholic beverages * Candy bar * Chocolate bar Science and technology * Bar (river morphology), a deposit of sediment * Bar (tropical cyclone), a layer of cloud * Bar (u ...

restaurants A restaurant is a business that prepares and serves food and drinks to customers. Meals are generally served and eaten on the premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and food delivery services. Restaurants vary greatly in appearan ...

and a

theater Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The perform ...

. Egoísta Restaurant in the Casino offers

haute cuisine ''Haute cuisine'' (; ) or ''grande cuisine'' is the cuisine of "high-level" establishments, gourmet restaurants, and luxury hotels. ''Haute cuisine'' is characterized by the meticulous preparation and careful presentation of food at a high pric ...

of local and Portuguese cuisine presented in a ''gourmet'' version, the restaurant is surrounded by an art gallery, exhibiting paintings from some of the finest Portuguese artists such as Graça Morais, Júlio Resende, Nikias Skapinakis or Rogério Ribeiro. It is also a patron of Arts with an art prize for Portuguese artists and a notable literature prize for the Portuguese and Spanish-speaking writers from the

Iberian Peninsula The Iberian Peninsula (), ** * Aragonese and Occitan: ''Peninsula Iberica'' ** ** * french: Péninsule Ibérique * mwl, Península Eibérica * eu, Iberiar penintsula also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in southwestern Europe, def ...

Latin America Latin America or * french: Amérique Latine, link=no * ht, Amerik Latin, link=no * pt, América Latina, link=no, name=a, sometimes referred to as LatAm is a large cultural region in the Americas where Romance languages — languages derived f ...

and Portuguese-speaking Africa.

Sections

*Traditional Games Room (1 Punto banco Baccarat, 4 roulette, 2 Black Jack) *Slot Machines Room (601 slot machines, 8 roulette, Banca Francesa (Portuguese dice Game), 4 Black Jacks, 2 Punto banco Baccarat) *Sala Mista (Mixed Room, 89 slot machines) *Bar City (in the Slot Machines Room) *Bar Garden (in the Slot Machines Room) *Snack Fair Play (in the Slot Machines Room) *Bar Chinês (

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...

Bar in sala Mista) *Bar Atrium (located in sala Mista) *Salão d'Ouro Restaurant

History

Póvoa de Varzim was a Northern Portugal's upper-class beach resort in the 19th century, before the popularization of sea baths and sun baths by the general population, and a prominent site for gambling, with seventeen casinos, frequently in the back-doors of cafés and pubs, the most famous of which was Café Chinês ("Chinese Café"), known in Portugal for its exotic decoration and Spanish dancers. Others were Café Suíço, Café David, Café Universal, and Luso-Brasileiro.

Camilo Castelo Branco Camilo Castelo Branco, 1st Viscount of Correia Botelho (; 16 March 1825 – 1 June 1890), was a prolific Portuguese writer of the 19th century, having produced over 260 books (mainly novels, plays and essays). His writing is considered original i ...

recurrently visited Póvoa de Varzim to gamble. The regulation of gambling in the city occurred in early 20th century, and the construction of Póvoa Casino started on February 28, 1930 when an Garnier-inspired modernist building started being built. The casino opened four years later and soon started to be seen as the pro-eminent casino in northern Portugal. The hotel for the casino was built next to it, in Passeio Alegre Square. Casino da Póvoa is licensed to Varzim Sol since December, 2001. Varzim Sol's major shareholder is Estoril Sol, a company majority-owned by Chinese gambling king Stanley Ho and Amorim group. Prior to Stanley Ho's investments in Póvoa de Varzim, it was licensed to Sopete (Sociedade Poveira de Empreendimentos Turísticos).

References

External links

Casino da PóvoaGrande Hotel da Póvoa
- Hotel of the Casino built during the same time * {{DEFAULTSORT:Casino da Povoa Casinos completed in the 20th century Povoa Landmarks in Póvoa de Varzim Buildings and structures in Póvoa de Varzim Tourist attractions in Póvoa de Varzim