Visiting Casinos in Europe

Travelling to Europe is a rite of passage for people from all over
the world. The continent consists of 50 countries, each with a
rich heritage, national history, and unique relationship to the
world of gambling. From gaming hotspots like Monaco and the
French Riviera to less-known markets like Croatia and Poland,
the entirety of Europe is a perfect travel destination for
gamblers.

Americans have deeply-embedded romantic notions about
travel in Europe.Most of them true. European hospitality sets
the standard by which the rest of the world’s tourist trade is judged. You don’t have to spend thousands of
dollars on hotel stays in places like France, England, or Italy. Of course, you CAN spend that much, especially if
you’re interested in luxury amenities at the region’s top hotel casino properties.

We’ve collected examples of Europe’s best casino hotels at three different price points. The nations that make
up modern Europe offer a variety of experiences, from the historic chapels of Italy to the ultra-modernist
design and fashion of Copenhagen. We’ve tried to represent the diversity of the European experience with
these selections, which offer hotel casino stays for very different budgets.

We’ve also included details of some of the best non-gambling activities to do in Europe, and there’s
information on the history of gambling in Europe too.

Top Budget Casino Hotels in Europe

Mercure Warszawa Grand Hotel

The Mercure Warszawa Grand Hotel is home to the Orbis Casino.
The hotel has 450 available guest rooms along with 10 VIP suites, all
of which offer luxury amenities at a five-star property for really low
prices. Rooms start at just $134 a night.

This hotel (and the city of Warsaw) are often called the best luxury deal
in Europe, and for good reason. The attached 4,000 square-foot casino
is made up mostly of slots and table games, including American-style table games and occasional
head-to-head poker tournaments.

Hotel Ambassador Monaco

If you’re going to visit Monte Carlo, you have two choices. You can
stay at the Hotel Ambassador or break the bank on hotel fees.
Monaco is an expensive place to visit, but you can do it on a budget
by staying at this surprisingly-inexpensive hotel and casino. Guests
who stay here have private parking – something that comes at a
huge premium in this part of the world. Besides being cheap, the
Ambassador is also the best location in the city, just minutes from all the traditional tourist locations. The
attached casino hosts all the traditional Monte Carlo favorites, with an emphasis on French roulette.

Casino di Sanremo

Italy is home to just five traditional casinos. The biggest and
most popular of them all is also one of the most affordable.
A stay at the Casino di Sanremo won’t cost much more than
a room at any of the big hotels nearby, but it has the added
benefit of a 40,000+ square foot casino. Don’t expect a spate
of Western-style games; sure, slot and video poker machines are
available, but the focus here is on punto banco, roulette, and “red and black.”

Top First Class Casino Hotels in Europe

Fairmont Monte Carlo

The hotel is rated four stars by international travel agencies and
reviewers, but it’s not quite the level of glitz you’d find at other
spots in Monaco. That makes it more affordable – and the level of
elegance is still far beyond what you’d find at a mid-range Vegas
casino hotel. As for the casino, the name of the game at the
Fairmount is Vegas-style gambling.

You won’t find punto banco or chemin de fer here – instead, US-style blackjack, “English roulette,” and
games like craps and Texas holdem are available. The Fairmount is home to more slot machines than any
venue in France or Monaco – I counted more than 300 slot and video poker machines during my last visit.

Hotel Algarve Casino

Thanks to low prices, a booming economy, and an
invigorated tourist trade,Portugal is fast becoming a casino
hotspot,. This is Portugal’s first legitimate casino-hotel.
Expect top of the line accommodations and luxury
amenities – and get there while it’s still cheap to travel and
stay in this amazing country.

The attached casino hosts mostly games that American gamblers would be familiar with, though all
roulette games are French, and only a few dozen machine games are available.

The May Fair Hotel

A perfect blend of the informal and the elegant, from
inexpensive street food storefronts to gourmet dining,
and from traditional European casino gambling to a bustling
West End theater, the May Fair has a little of everything.
It isn’t exactly cheap to stay here. London is one of the most
expensive cities in the world for travelers.But the attached
casino property offers the best of London, from a betting exchange and OTB facility to machine games
and VIP baccarat and roulette.

Top Luxury Casino Hotels in Europe

Hotel Alfonso XIII

This hotel and casino is the flagship luxury experience of
Spain. Between two Conde Nast Gold List appearances and its
perennial spot on Fodor’s Reader’s Choice awards, the Hotel
Alfonso XIII is a can’t-miss venue for people of means. The art
deco architecture, gigantic central courtyard, and elegantly-
furnished rooms are the epitome of European hospitality. Casino
Sevilla (located on the ground floor) is a typically-small European gambling floor featuring mainly table
games – baccarat and roulette are local favorites. A special VIP room in the casino offers the only high-roller
gambling in the city.

Esplanade Zagreb

Zagreb, Croatia may not be first on most people’s list of
places to visit in Europe, but this little country has tons of history,
a solid local economy, and it lacks the crowds of other Euro
hotspots. The Esplanade Zagreb was built as a tourist destination
for visitors on the Orient Express, and as such it has always been
the seat of luxury in Croatia. From the fairytale exterior to the lush
interior art deco style, this hotel is the place to see and be seen. Casino Fortuna, located inside, is home to
hundreds of electronic games (mostly slots and video poker) as well as a handful of Western-style table
games. A VIP baccarat table is available to high-roller customers.

Palais de la Mediterranee

Built right at the gateway to the French Alps and the Riviera,
the Palais, as locals call it, is an ambitiously-restored luxury palace.
Re-opened in 2004, after a decade of construction and renovation,
the Palais pays homage to Europe of the 1920s. Boutique-style
rooms (just six rooms per each of the hotel’s nine floors) display the
definition of French opulence. The hotel’s fourth floor casino focuses
almost exclusively on baccarat, roulette, and other French and European games, with very little in the way
of gaming machines and a massive VIP section.

Non-Gambling Activities in Europe

It’s important that we talk about the non-gambling activities available in Europe. We cover the non-gambling
activities available in places like Las Vegas and Macau, which are much smaller than the continent of Europe.
And Europe has plenty to offer.

What you do in Europe has a lot to do with what country you’re in. Visitors to Italy enjoy the restaurant scene in
Tuscany or the history of the Vatican. A traveler in France may decide to take a shortcut to Epernay to tour
wineries.

The easiest way to choose a non-gambling activity in Europe is to start with some basics.

• Are you going to be in a country with bad weather that forces you indoors?
• Is the natural beauty of the place you’re visiting a big part of its appeal?
• Are you travelling with kids or a large family?
• What’s the size of your budget?

Once you’ve answered those questions, you’ll find it a lot easier to find suitable activities to enjoy. You can
also just follow our recommendations.

Here’s a list featuring our picks for the top non-gambling destinations of Europe.

Grand Bazaar, Istanbul

Some 15 million people visit the Grand Bazaar each year, making it by far the most
popular tourist destination in all of Europe. The main focus here is on hand-made goods, from everyday
tools to luxury specialty clothing, fine art, and decorative pieces. The food court of street vendors serves
what is regularly called the best food in the city.

Anne Frank House & Museum, Amsterdam

This is the house where Anne Frank, her family, and their friends hid from Nazi
persecution for two years until their capture in August of 1944. The home has been transformed into an
amazing museum, one of the most popular spots in all of Amsterdam, and a must-visit for fans of history.

The Azores, Portugal

The Azores archipelago is still something of a secret European paradise. These
islands have a sub-tropical climate, are easily-accessible from Portugal or Spain, and basically provide
island comfort year-round. Pristine beaches and luxury nightlife destinations are the main attraction in The
Azores, though we expect plenty of tourists do like we did and lay out under an umbrella with the latest
John Grisham all week.

The History of Gambling in Europe

European gambling history is fascinating. So much of European history played out against a backdrop of
gaming. Most of the great cathedrals of Europe were built in some part from gambling proceeds or lotteries.
The expansionist policies of great European nations not only colonized the world with Western culture, they
also spread games like craps, roulette, and baccarat.

Games once played in the back rooms and alleyways of European port cities are now deeply entrenched in
local culture from Macau to Montreal.

Here’s a look at four popular modern ways to gamble that have roots in European history.

Blackjack

The history of blackjack is mysterious. We know that the
game evolved out of the rules of several French and Spanish
games of the 17th and 18th centuries. And we know that
some specific rules came directly from these predecessors.

But we don’t know much about how the game was synthesized.

The game that Americans would turn into blackjack was called vingt-et-un,
French for “twenty-one.” The name (and some of the rules) of blackjack wouldn’t appear until American
casino gambling in the 20th century. Vingt-et-un was probably a game played by the wealthy in private, and
it was that origin as a non-banked game that probably lead to the development of the game’s rules today.

French casinos allowed customers to play any game they wanted, so long as a player would act as dealer
and banker. Casinos made their money charging a five percent commission on the banker’s winning.
Sometimes, these outsider games would take hold, as was the case with the player-banked baccarat variant
called chemin-de-fer. Both blackjack and chemin-de-fer are still available in casinos today, though in slightly
different forms.

But, as is often the case with European gambling history, blackjack doesn’t have just one predecessor. For
example, the ability to buy insurance against a dealer blackjack comes from “thirty-and-forty,” an even earlier
precursor to blackjack than vingt-et-un. In “thirty-and-forty,” the target total is thirty-one instead of
twenty-one, and players were allowed to bet on either the dealer or the player’s hands.

Since thirty-and-forty is a house-banked game, the house edge comes from the casino taking half of all
wagers when the two hands hit a total of exactly thirty-one. To counter-act this chance, bettors could place
an insurance wager against that eventuality. How this rule moved from thirty-and-forty through twenty-one
and into modern blackjack is lost to history.

Baccarat

Though not as popular in America, baccarat is the game
of choice for plenty of European and Asian gamblers. The
most popular game in places like Monte Carlo and Macau,
baccarat has a reputation as a game for VIPs and royalty.
That reputation is well-earned.

Baccarat is the oldest casino game still played today. The earliest
references to baccarat appear in the 15th century, in the notes of French historians in the royal court, who
said the game arrived with Italian merchants. The name refers to a very basic game rule–one way we know
that baccarat has changed little over the years.

Baccarat caught on in part because of its popularity among the wealthy and the noble. French royalty were
said to pass days by placing huge bets on baccarat games. As is often the case, several differences in house
rules led to lots of variations of the game in casinos. English bettors were drawn to the house-banked
punto banco, while bettors in other parts of Europe preferred the player-banked chemin-de-fer.

Another reason for baccarat’s continued popularity – the game’s simplicity. Even Americans like
mini-baccarat, our name for the British punto banco. In this version, you don’t have to do anything but
place your bet on one of three possible outcomes. The dealer hands out all the cards and establishes wins
and losses. It’s a high-risk game, and it usually requires hefty bet minimums, but it’s the perfect cocktail
game, since it moves slow and doesn’t require much brain work.

Roulette

Sometimes called “the devil’s wheel,” since all its numbers
add up to 666, roulette is another casino classic with roots
embedded in European history. Mathematician and
philosopher Blaise Pascal invented roulette in the 17th
century, for one of the rare instances of a single person
creating a popular gambling game. Pascal was studying
probability and created the wheel as part of an attempt at a perpetual motion machine. With just a few
slight modifications, it was found to be the perfect gambling prop.

Members of the Parisian court were said to be playing roulette as early as 1796. By the early 1800s, the
game was already making its first appearances in America, thanks to a high level of diplomacy and trade
between the two nations. American casinos didn’t like the game’s tiny house edge, so they added a “00”
spot – and just like that, American roulette was born.

Roulette has changed little over the centuries, besides the variation that allows for an additional 0 space to
give the house a better edge. Though roulette is not as popular in America as it once was, it’s still a major
game in Europe and parts of Asia. Whether you’re looking for a fast-paced game with simplified betting
rules, like American roulette, or a traditional casino classic like French roulette, this game has stood the test
of time in part by being adaptable.

Sports Betting

Betting on the outcome of athletic events goes back to
pre-Roman times. We see evidence of “sports betting” as far
back as the Vedic texts of 4,500 years ago. But in terms of
modern sports betting, at kiosks, bet shops, sports books, and
online, Europe has had the greatest impact of any region of the
world. Estimates of the European sports gambling market in 2015
range from $120-146 billion, and that’s just through regulated markets, such as the ones so popular in
England.

The Mecca of sports gambling is London, which is one of the flagship cities of Europe. Sports betting is as
British as warm beer, with bet shops and other wagering facilities on every corner. Legal sports wagering
has been a British institution since 1960, with unregulated sports wagering going back centuries in British
and European history.

These days, plenty of Europeans have made the switch to online sports gambling. The European Gaming &
Betting Association is expecting growth of more than 50% in European sports betting over the next five
years. In short – Europe already has a strong case of sports betting fever, and there’s no sign of that letting
up any time soon. No doubt, the healthy sports gambling markets of Europe influenced the spread of
sportsbooks (online and land-based) in the United States and other parts of the world.

Summary

If you’re planning a vacation to Europe of any length, you’d be remiss if you didn’t visit at least
one major European casino. Gaming is as big a part of European heritage as anything else – the
majority of the world’s most-popular casino games have their roots in France, Germany, and
England. You don’t have to travel like a millionaire to enjoy Europe’s casino destinations, either.
Though luxury has long been a part of the European gaming scene, options for budget travelers
and penny-pinchers are popping up faster than ever. As Europe looks for new ways to attract
tourists, expect gambling opportunities in this multi-faceted continent to expand even more.