Whether you’ve never been to a casino, played online, or enjoy visiting Coral Island Casino, there’s no denying that gambling and casinos have been part of life all around the world for centuries, with the first casinos first seen in the UK in the 19th century.
But with much myth, mystery, and superstition surrounding casinos, how much do you really know about them? We thought we’d have a look at some interesting, and sometimes weird facts about casinos!
In the US state of Nevada, gambling is such a massive industry that even the state prison had a casino inside it for almost 35 years. Inmates serving time at the prison could play blackjack, craps, poker, and even place bets on sports inside the ‘Bullpen’, a special stone building inside the prison grounds in Carson City from 1932 to 1967.
However, the casino was shut down by a new warden in 1967, saying that gambling was a degradation to the inmates.
It can be the dream of many a gambler to win a life-changing amount of money at the casino, but the biggest ever recorded win on a slot machine landed one lucky man a staggering amount of money.
It won’t be surprising to learn that this happened in Las Vegas when an unnamed man bet $100 on a machine at the Excalibur Casino. The aptly named machine, Megabucks, returned a humungous $39.7 million, and this record has stood since 2003, and may take some beating!
Believe it or not, none of the huge casinos we all associate with Las Vegas are officially in the City of Las Vegas and are actually located in the unincorporated town of Paradise, Clark County, Nevada, adjacent to Las Vegas.
There have long been superstitions about casinos and gambling, with popular casino games often earning mystical properties!
One of these, in particular, is that the numbers on the roulette wheel all add up to 666, the Biblical ‘Number of the Beast’, which when coupled with the tales of gambling ruining many a man’s life, grated the roulette wheel the nickname ‘The Devil’s Wheel’.
The Monte Carlo Casino is known all around the world as a gambler’s paradise, that is as long as you’re not actually from Monaco! When Monte Carlo Casino was developed by Princess Caroline in the mid-19th century, she made it illegal for Monaco’s citizens to gamble there, insisting that the revenue was generated by tourists and foreigners.
However, it’s unlikely that many of Monaco’s citizens are upset by this, as they do not have to pay any taxes, as this is all generated by the casino.
Ever wondered why slot machines are often fruit themed? The earliest slots were known as fruit machines, a name still used today, and these early versions of the games in the 1900s had a fruit-flavoured chewing gum attachment, and the fruit symbols were meant to show the flavours of the gum. These days, they have become part of casino and slot machine tradition.
Casinos can be found all over the world, from Macau to London, Las Vegas
Check out ‘what’s on’ in Blackpool and at Coral Island Casino.