The etymology:
A casino is the name of a place which allows its guests to involve themselves in any form of gambling. A casino is mostly a built up space near or within a hotel, restaurant, mall a cruiser of any other tourist attraction.
Though the place may not completely be used for gambling purposes, a major part of the revenue is generated through gambling. It may also have games purely for entertainment purpose without playing for money, it may also be a place where live entertainment is shown in the form of dance and music concerts or comedy shows by actors or comedians on their stage.
The word has an Italian origin from the root word “casa” meaning a villa or a club house.
A brief history:
During most part of the 18th and the 19th century, theses casas or casinos were actually places where people usually the gentry met up for a drink or two and also socialized in club activities. These events were housed in these Italian looking villas where the programme changed every week and it even included playing cards with and without involving any money or betting in any form whatsoever.
The earliest casinos:
- Casino Catalina, the oldest known casino which is a landmark of sort in the historic city of California has never been used for the traditional purpose of gambling even though it is called as one. This is because at the time that the casino was proposed and built, gambling was already illegal and against the moral code of the society.
- Casino de Copenhagen was a theatre where people assembled for public meetings. Its hall also incidentally is the historical witness to a revolution that made Denmark a Monarchy in the year 1848. Even though its name can mislead, the historical testimony that these buildings give make them the most incredible source of leaning and honor.
- Another one in Hanko, Finland was called a casino but in fact it was anything most far from one. It had been for a very long time the banquet hall for the Russian nobility who frequented spas closer to the casino.