Monte Carlo Casino

Welcome to the Monte Carlo Casino, one of the most famous buildings in Monaco and the most successful casino in the world. This casino features in plenty of TV shows, films and is one of the favourite places for James Bond to hang out, featuring in Bond films like Golden Eye and Never Say Never Again.

Not only is it a significant casino, it is a magnificent building that launched Monaco to the success that it now enjoys – this building established Monaco as a site of glamour, beauty, elegance, extravagance and wealth. Without this casino, without this building, Monaco would not resemble the spectacular country it has now become, because this whole region used to be very poor before the creation of the casino, around the 1860s. It was beautiful but provincial, agricultural, full of fertile land that made it good farmland. A poor area of South Europe, with no tourists coming in and nothing to see.

However, tourism was just starting to kick off around the Cote d’Azur region, particularly in the city of Nice where British tourists spearheaded the charge, before Russians came in and started building their own community here, and shortly afterwards Americans started pouring in, at which point everyone came over. God bless America.

Nice was getting richer and richer, as were the other towns along the Riviera, and the Prince of Monaco at the time, Prince Charles III, saw this and wanted to bring some of these tourists over to Monaco as well – it is important to note that at this point, Monaco and France were different countries, with different laws and different customs. The way he decided to bring the tourists over was by building a casino.

In France and Italy at the time, gambling was forbidden, which meant that if the wealthy tourists wanted to spend a crazy night out at the slots on the Riviera, they have to come to Monaco. Not a bad strategy to bring the tourists over, but fairly poor execution – the first casino that was constructed here was small and dingy, more of a crack den, attracting the wrong type of people and worsening the reputation of Monaco. Have a look around you – none of these lovely buildings had been built, the gardens did not exist and the train station also had not been constructed – there was only one dirt track leading up over the mountains to France, so it was very difficult to get here to Monaco, and not really worth it even if you did.

This all changed when Charles III requested the services of a man called Francois Blanc to come and redesign the casino. Francois Blanc was a young entrepreneur who had created casinos in America, Germany and Switzerland. Charles III gave him the entire budget of Monaco at the time, and told him to build the best casino in the world. Which is exactly what we have here, sitting at the centre of the Monte Carlo neighbourhood, the heart of Monaco.

Francois Blanc completely redesigned the exterior of the casino, completely redesigned the interior of the casino, built up the chain of hotels on the far side, boasting the Hotel de Paris, one of the most expensive hotels in the world. Just up from the Hotel de Paris, there is a Cartier and a Louis Vuitton outlet, which are part of the Avenue de Beaux Arts, where all of the luxury brands live – all your Dior, Prada, Chanel, Valentino are all just here. If you want to spend your money very very quickly, this is the place for you. Opposite we have the Café de Paris, again, nice if you want to get a very expensive, very small cup of coffee. Just behind all of this we have these lovely green gardens as well – as you walk round, you will see that Monaco is a very green country. It has a very special microclimate that can support plant life from all over the world – Africa, South America, East Asia, Australia, North Europe, whatever. There are specific gardens across the country which are dedicated to a certain geographical region, paying homage to the international spirit of Monaco where everyone, person or plant, can thrive here. These gardens in particular are called the Jardins de la Petite Afrique, which means the Small African Gardens – they are filled with African plant life, not wildlife, and are a really lovely place to have a rest if you wish to return to the Monte Carlo region after the tour.

All of these elements combined to create this stunning panoramic view all the way around this central Place de Monte Carlo, with the mountains in the background and glorious building and gardens circling the casino, which became a roaring success just in time for the roaring 20s, which glamorous crowds came over to the Riviera in hordes, exponentially increasing the income of the country and shooting the casino to worldwide acclaim. At this time, the casino accounted for around 95% of the total economy, which is an insane number. This means that the country was funded almost exclusively by one building, which is bananas, and just doesn’t happen anywhere. It continued to bring in a hell of a lot of money, however around the 70s, once again, the reputation of Monaco worsened as it became the ‘shady man’ of Europe, a place where rich people could come to avoid paying their taxes and splash all of their cash at the casino. In an attempt to reverse this attitude towards Monaco, the prince at the time, now Prince Rainier III, diverted a lot of money away from the casino, into diverse other aspects of Monaco tourism that could show off the other great aspects of the country. We will see this as we walk around today – this is buildings and events like the Grand Prix, the Opera House, the Yacht club, Old Town, the Prince Palace, the Royal Cathedral, the Oceanic Museum, the Tennis Open Tournament, the Golf Tournament – all kinds of other jewels scattered around Monaco, which became hits worldwide, lessening the money generated by the casino, right down to around 5% of the economy. Don’t be fooled, this is still a shedload of money, but the complete reversal of how much it used to make, of the part it used to play.

Now, you can go and visit the casino building for free, and I would encourage you to go inside and have a look around. Walk up the steps to the bodyguards, who will check your bags and run a scanner over you – provided you have no bombs on you today, you are welcome to go inside and visit. As you enter, there is a large foyer area with revolving art installations, beautiful architecture, glorious marble pillars, all glitz and glamour. On the far side is an expensive cocktail bar, on the other side is the casino proper which you are welcome to go inside and explore, but you will need to pay to enter this area. Entry costs 17 Euros, and you are also required to present your passport, because there is one nationality which is not allowed to visit the casino – this is the people from Monaco, the local Monegasque population. As already mentioned, Monaco used to be a very poor region, and could not afford to let their people waste their money on the casino. In the United States of America, the nationality that loses the most amount of at the casino is Americans, a very proud statistic for our friends across the pond. Monaco did not want to follow this model, so by tradition, people with a Monegasque passport are still not allowed inside. Otherwise, you are welcome to go inside, take some photos, and continue the tour when you are ready.