Casinò di Venezia

Casinò di Venezia is the oldest gaming house in the world, established in 1638 during the Venetian Republic as the Ridotto, a state-run venue created to bring the gambling of the carnival season under official control. That founding logic, legalise in order to supervise, is the one European regulators are still applying four centuries later. Its winter home is Ca' Vendramin Calergi, a Renaissance palace on the Grand Canal that was once a residence of the Doges and the house in which Richard Wagner died. The City Council of Venice bought the palace in 1946 and the casino has occupied it since 1959. It remains municipally owned, which is characteristic of the Italian land-based sector: the country licenses only a handful of casinos, and they sit under public rather than corporate ownership.

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