Of all the strategies that the Principality of Monaco had to come up with in order to survive France, its powerful neighbor, without question, casinos was one of the most successful. Everything started about a century and a half ago, December 14th 1856, when for the first time the ball of the roulette rolled in one of the rooms of the Villa Bellevue, Montecarlo.

The idea had been of prince Carlos Grimaldi III (in whose honor Montecarlo was named), but the discrete results they had in the beginning showed that gambling was not a kid’s game, they had to do it big.

The prince ordered the construction of a new building, exclusively dedicated to function as a casino. The responsibility was for businessman François Blan, responsible of the Socété des Bains de Mer, who hired the architects Jules Dutrou and Charles Garnier, who was at the moment building the Opera of Paris. Both created the new casino, with its splendid dome and the towers and in its interior had two restaurants: Le Train Bleu and Les Privés and a view of the Cap Martin.

The actual casino, inaugurated in 1865 between the hotel and the Café Paris, has nothing to envy a palace: it dazzles not only for the amounts bet, but for the beauty and antiques that decorate the Europe Room, with its Bohemia crystal lamps, the Rose Room, Renaissance and the private rooms such as Empire, Médecin and Toutz.