Directly ahead is La Condamine, to the right with the smaller harbour is Fontvieille and to the left with the high-rise buildings is Monte Carlo
Casino gambling was initially legalized during the reign of Florestan I in 1846. At the time, the monarch hoped the newly legal industry would help alleviate the crushing debt the royal family had incurred due in part to economic interference from Sardinia--which had received Monaco as a protectorate under the Treaty of Vienna (1815) and was attempting to destabilize the principality in order to annex it. Monaco's first casino would not receive a royal concession to operate, however, until after Charles III assumed the throne in 1856.[1]
The grantee of this first royal concession was unable to attract enough business to sustain the operation and, after relocating the casino several times, sold the royal concession to French casino magnates François and Louis Blanc for 1.7 million francs. The Blancs had already set up a highly successful casino in Homborg and quickly petitioned Charles III to rename a depressed seaside area known as "Les Spelegures," or "Den of Thieves," "Monte Carlo," or "Mount Charles." They then constructed their casino in the newly dubbed "Monte Carlo" and cleared out the area's less-than-savory elements to make the neighborhood surrounding the establishment more conducive to tourism.
The Blancs opened Le Grand Casino de Monte Carlo in 1858, and the casino benefited from the tourist traffic the newly built French railway system created. Due to the combination of the casino and the railroads, Monaco finally recovered from the previous half century of economic slump, and the principality's success attracted other businesses. In the years following the casino's opening Monaco founded its Oceanographic Museum and the Monte Carlo Opera House, 46 hotels sprang up and the number of jewellers operating in Monaco increased by nearly 500 percent.
Today, Le Grand Casino still operates in the original building the Blancs constructed and has been joined by several other casinos, including Le Casino Café de Paris, the Monte Carlo Bay Casino, the Monte Carlo Sporting Club & Casino (Summer Casino) and the Sun Casino. The most recent addition to the list—the first casino to open in Monte Carlo in 75 years—is the Monte Carlo Bay Casino, which sits on 4 hectares of the Mediterranean Garden and, among other things, offers 145 slot machines, all equipped with "Ticket in/ Ticket out" (TITO); it is the first Mediterranean casino to utilize this technology.[2]
References
- ^ a b "Monte Carlo Casinos: History, Info & Amenities".
- ^ Porter, D.; D. Prince (2006), Frommer’s Provence and the Riviera (Fifth. ed.), Wiley Publishing Inc.
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