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.^[1]

The Casino de Monte-Carlo is owned and operated by the Société des bains de mer de Monaco, 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.^[2]

• Monaco Historics is a great meeting. I can recommend Casino Square for qualifying and Tabac K1 for race day. You can see screen well from both stands.
• Nevertheless, the fast, narrow section sees plenty of incident and the quick flick left of Tabac is a favourite spot for Monaco regulars. Being seated here is an auditory experience as much as a visual one.

Revisions to the Tabac corner on Monaco's Grand Prix circuit have further reduced the length of what was already the shortest track on the F1 calendar.

History[edit]

The idea of opening a gamblingcasino in Monaco belongs to Princess Caroline,^[3] a shrewd, business-minded spouse of Prince Florestan. Revenues from the proposed venture were supposed to save the House of Grimaldi from bankruptcy. 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, 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 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 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.^[4]

During this initial period, the casino had been moved several times, until it finally ended up in the area called Les Spelugues (English: The Caves). Construction at this site began on 13 May 1858 to designs of the Parisian architect Gobineau de la Bretonnerie^[5] and was completed in 1863. Gobineau de la Bretonnerie also designed the neighboring Hôtel de Paris Monte-Carlo (constructed in 1862).^[6]

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.^[7] Frustrated, she dispatched her private secretary M. Eyneaud to Germany, hoping to recruit François Blanc, a French entrepreneur and operator of the Bad Homburg 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, 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' 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. 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), 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 were also located.^[8]

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.^[9] 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.^[8] 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 House of Grimaldi and the Monaco economy.

Casino facilities[edit]

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

• Different kinds of roulette

1913 Gambler's fallacy[edit]

Tabac Casino Monaco Hotel

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. This was an extremely uncommon occurrence, although no more nor less common than any of the other 67,108,863 sequences of 26 red or black. 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.^[10]

Breaking the bank[edit]

• In 1873, Joseph Jagger 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 roulette 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 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 and another player he refers to as 'Katie'.^[11]

In popular culture[edit]

• 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 and GoldenEye, as well as for the 'Casino Royale' episode of the CBS's Climax!television show.
• The casino served as a filming location for the 2004 film Ocean's Twelve.^[12]
• The casino makes an appearance in Condorman, The Castle of Cagliostro and Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted.

Other mentions[edit]

• 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.^[13]

Gallery[edit]

• The Casino de Monte-Carlo main entrance

• View of the casino illuminated at dusk

• The main hall

• Roulette tables

• The gardens behind the casino with the Salle Garnier in the background

• South balcony

See also[edit]

References[edit]

Notes

1. ^'Le Casino de Monte-Carlo joue la carte de l'ouverture'. nicematin.com. Archived from the original on 2012-08-05.
2. ^The rule banning all Monegasques from gambling or working at the casino was an initiative of Princess Caroline, de facto regent of Monaco, who amended the rules on moral grounds. The idea that the casino was intended only for the foreigners was even emphasized in the name of the company that was formed to operate the gambling business, Societe des Bains de Mer et du Cercle des Etrangers (English: Company of Sea Bathing and of the Circles from Abroad). Source: Edwards, Anne (1992). The Grimaldis of Monaco: The Centuries of Scandal—The Years of Grace. William Morrow. ISBN978-0-688-08837-8..
3. ^Edwards, Anne (1992). The Grimaldis of Monaco: The Centuries of Scandal - The Years of Grace. William Morrow. ISBN978-0-688-08837-8..
4. ^'Chronology of Gambling (1852-1900)'. gamblinghistory.info.
5. ^Folli & Merello 2004, pp. 112, 114.
6. ^Denby p. 92.
7. ^Sharma, K.K. (1999). Tourism and Culture. New Delhi: Sarup & Sons. ISBN81-7625-056-2.
8. ^ ^abFolli & Merello 2004, pp. 116–117, 136; Bouvier 2004, pp. 190–192.
9. ^Folli & Merello 2004, pp. 132–133.
10. ^Lehrer, Jonah (2009). How We Decide. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. p. 66.
11. ^'ThePOGG Interviews - Semyon Dukach - MIT Card Counting Team Captain'. Retrieved 10 November 2012.
12. ^'OCEANS 12 - Production notes - About the production'. CinemaReview.com. Retrieved December 1, 2013.
13. ^Metropolis 1987.

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. ISBN9782951639614.
  • 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. ISBN9781861891211.
• Metropolis, N. (1987). 'The beginning of the Monte Carlo method'(PDF). Los Alamos Science (1987 Special Issue dedicated to Stanislaw Ulam): 125–130.

Tabac Casino Monaco Grand

External links[edit]

Any Formula 1 pilot dreams to win on the Mythical circuit of Monaco which is slowest and hardest of the World Formula 1 Championship. The one that wins in Monaco deserves it because even a small error in the streets of the principality is fatal. The qualifications are always determining, the overpass being almost impossible. However, the number of abandons being high, a good control can ensure a place in the points.
It was the second circuit of the history to receive formulas 1 in 1950 (May 21), after Silverstone, but there were races since 1929. It is one of last 'circuits of men' where the talent of the pilot can still make the difference (Ayrton Senna won it 6 times.

The circuit, which remained nearly identical since 1950, is 3,340 km long. Passed the line, the pilot arrives at Sainte Dévote curve, place of many accidents. The track goes up until the left-right of the Casino of Monte-Carlo, from there, goes down again to the right curve of the Mirabeau. It continues then to the slowest turn of the championship : Virage Fairmont (formerly Virage Loews), on the site of which is the Fairmont Hotel Monte-Carlo. The section of the Portier brings to the sea, where the track borrows a tunnel and carries out to the baffle close to the port. Then turn on the left of the Tobacco Shop, the section of the Swimming pool, then the stiff turn on the right with Rascasse, follow-up of the curve Anthony Noghes, then finally the line of the stands.

Laps : 78
Circuit length : 3.340 Km
Distance race : 260,52 Km
he circuit of Monaco had few transformations since its creation :
1973, the road of the swimming pool which made possible to install the stands on the Quay,
1976, two new baffles are installed respectively at Ste Dévote and on the outlet side of the Rascasse,
1986, the widening of the Quay des Etats Unis that allows the creation of a new Baffle,
1997, the first 'S' of the swimming pool is redrawn and has now the name of turn 'Louis Chiron',
2003, the first phase of installations of the circuit touched only the southern part of the port. 5000 square meters of ground were gained on the sea. The circuit ranging between the 2nd 'S' of the swimming pool and Rascasse was moved of 10 meters compared to its initial site and completely redrawn. Installation of a baffle at the exit of the 2nd turn of the swimming pool,
2004, the doubling of the width of the esplanade accomodating the zone of the stands on the level of the Boulevard Albert 1st, by the creation of a building on the influence of the old track between the swimming pool and Rascasse. New stands representing an area of 250 square meters will be placed at the disposal of each team.

Events in Monaco

Monaco in pictures

Transports / Services

Our real-estate selection in Monte-Carlo www.montecarlo-realestate.com