The Venice Casino made this palace its winter home in 1959 after a long absence and players have been visiting this beautiful building ever since. The Ca’ Vendramin Calergi palace was a home for Italian royalty for generations, and today houses not only a casino but also a museum of the composer Richard Wagner, who was a frequent visitor to the palace. However, in later years this Venice Casino would reopen in the stunning palace whose construction began in 1481. It was to close in 1774 after campaigning by reformer Giorgio Pisani, who wished to ‘preserve the piety’ of the city.
The first casino in the western world was originally known as ‘Il Ridotto di San Moisè’ (‘The Private Room of San Moisè,’) when it opened its doors for the first time in 1638. Housed in a stunning Renaissance-era palace on the Grand Canal, the Casino di Venezia is the oldest casino in the world that is still active today. Our exhaustively-researched list of the ten oldest working casinos is very Euro-centric, although we do make one trip Stateside to the spiritual home of casinos today: 1. Casinos were a later arrival, with the first official and legal gaming house opening in Venice in the 1600s. Gambling has been taking place since ancient times, with the ancient Romans, Greeks and Chinese among those to partake in games of chance and wagering.
