Casinos are hardly a new invention as they have existed in one form or another for many, many years. The word casino derives from the Italian language and it refers to a festive villa. As such, it should come as no surprise that the first casino opened in Venice, Italy in the 17th century. (Of course, gambling and gambling halls had existed all over the world for thousands of years prior, but what we know today as a commercial casino originated in Italy) The popularity of casino gaming spread like wildfire and more casinos opened in Europe in short order. In time, the magic of casinos would spread to the United States as well.
In the United States, gambling halls had existed since the country's founding. In the 19th century, San Francisco's Barbary Coast was notorious for its Wild West style gaming saloons. It was in the 20th century, however, that gaming exploded in the United States with Bugsy Seigel's development of the Pink Flamingo. The Pink Flamingo, of course, was the famous first casino in Las Vegas that started the ball rolling to what has become modern casino gaming. In the 1970's, east coast casinos developed in Atlantic City expanding casinos from their western exclusivity. In time, casino gaming would further expand when it was legalized on Indian reservations.
Today, the history of casinos has taken on a unique new phase. This, of course, comes in the form of online casinos and gambling. So popular is online gaming that nearly half a billion people have partaken in the activity. This bodes well for the future of casinos, no matter what form they will take in the future.
