Melo Villareal
There are many great casinos in the world, and although when most people think of iconic casinos their thoughts turn to Las Vegas, that is not where the world’s most iconic casino is to be found. Instead you will need to travel to Macao on the Pearl River Delta in the People’s Republic of China.
Macau Casino at Night (photo courtesy of Wikipedia)
There you will find the Venetian Macao, a super luxurious casino hotel resort. With 40 floors and at a cost of $2.5 billion, its floor area is just short of a million square meters which makes it the sixth-largest building in the world and the world’s largest casino. The casino includes 3,400 slot machines, 800 gaming tables, and an indoor arena with seating for 15,000 people.
In true Chinese tradition, the gaming floors are divided into differently themed areas called Imperial House, the Golden Fish, the Phoenix and Red Dragon. There is also a special area for invited high rolling guests which is called the Paiza Club and which is divided into a number of private gaming rooms.
Although there is far more to the attraction of these vast casinos than just the casino games that are played there, one iconic casino in which the games are the dominant feature is the Casino de Monte Carlo. This is a very different world to that of the Venetian Macao, though still just as glamorous, and in some ways even more so.
The casino was opened in 1863, and although not a casino resort it does include a Grand Theatre. But the Monte Carlo Casino is really about gambling games, and you will find several different kinds of roulette; trente et quarante, which translates as 30 and 40, and is a French gambling card game that dates back to the seventeenth century and which is rarely found in non-European casinos; baccarat; poker; blackjack; craps; and of course a huge variety of slot machine games, all the favorites most players now find on online casino sites.
Nothing, of course, beats the nostalgia of the classic casino locations. Ian Fleming was a frequent Monte Carlo visitor and a number of James Bond movies have been set there and in the surrounding town including Golden Eye, Casino Royale and Never Say Never Again.
Check out our complete list of affordable hotels and resorts via Agoda or you may also see available Airbnb properties in the city.
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