The Venice Casino was founded in 1638 and is recognized as the oldest gambling house in the world.
The first Venetian casino, the Ridotto di San Moisè, was born in 1638. On 1 July 1938, the Venice Casino was inaugurated on the Lido, active as a summer venue until the end of the 1990s. In the fifties he also opened the headquarters of the historic center in Ca' Vendramin Calergi, a building overlooking the main waterway of Venice, the Grand Canal, where the Venice Casino still resides. In 1999 a new location was inaugurated, Ca' Noghera, the first American-style casino opened in Italy.
The two locations of the Venice Casino are Ca' Vendramin Calergi, a Renaissance palace overlooking the Grand Canal in the heart of the city, residence of Venetian patricians and last home of Richard Wagner, and Ca' Noghera, a modern structure of over 5000 m², near at Marco Polo airport.
At Ca' Vendramin Calergi there are gaming tables of French tradition (Chemin de Fer, Punto Banco, French Roulette), of American origin (Caribbean Poker, Fair Roulette, Black Jack) and slot machines. At Ca' Noghera there are over 550 slot machines and the main American and French table games: Fair Roulette, Black Jack and Caribbean Poker, Punto Banco, Chemin de Fer and French Roulette. While there is no longer a poker room dedicated to Texas Hold 'em Poker.
In Italy the gambling sector is subject to strict regulation by the
State; the authorization to manage casinos - in derogation from the
penal laws in force - is granted to only four public bodies, including
the Municipality of Venice, because they cause gambling addiction. The
legal entity authorized to practice gambling in these venues is the
Municipality of Venice, as the sole recipient of the authorization from
the Ministry of the Interior dated 16 July 1936. Since 1997, the
management of the gambling house has been entrusted to CMV, a wholly
owned subsidiary of the Municipality, through the stipulation of an
agreement pursuant to which CMV withheld, as remuneration for the
management of the gaming house, a portion of the gaming proceeds. On 1
October 2012, all the operating assets - excluding the Headquarters - of
the Gaming House were transferred by CMV to a newco called Casinò di
Venezia Gioco S.p.A., which was also entrusted with the management of
the Service as a result of the takeover of the agreement in to be.
During the same period the same company opens a casino branch in Malta,
which soon went bankrupt; this is the first case in the world of a
casino bankruptcy due to a losing balance sheet. The Venice casino
itself, an equally unique case in the world history of casinos, has been
making a loss for years, supported only by municipal subsidies.
Under accusation is the mechanism of 25 percent of revenues guaranteed
by the Casino to the Municipality every year. «As a result of this
mechanism» write the accounting judges «although the operating revenues
are higher than the costs, the company profit is systematically
transformed into a loss. In essence, the activity in question, although
productive in itself, generates constant losses due to the interference
of the shareholder, who retains a percentage of revenues higher than
costs. The behavior just described evidently creates the conditions for
a structural imbalance, considering that the company operates on the
market according to the cost-effectiveness criteria typical of
entrepreneurial activity. This imbalance obliges the institution to
cover the losses with continuous contributions of capital, with negative
effects on the municipal budget.