CASINO (from the Italian casino, meaning “little house”) is a gambling establishment in which games of chance are conducted at gaming tables and with other specialized equipment. In the modern sense, casinos emerged in 17th-century Europe from commercialized forms of gambling associated with urban and aristocratic elites. Venice, one of the leading commercial and financial centers of the early modern period, played a central role in this development. There, gambling gradually moved from private houses, salons, and clubs into increasingly commercial and regulated venues. The Ridotto, opened in Venice in 1638, is generally regarded as the first modern public casino. Some reference works also identify 1626 as an important date, linking it either to the issuance of government permits for gambling or to the establishment of the Venetian gaming house known as Casa, sometimes described as an early precursor of the casino. During the 17th and 18th centuries, organized gambling establishments spread across Europe, especially in France, the German lands, and Great Britain.

In May 1865, Le Grand Casino de Monte Carlo opened in Monaco and became the most famous casino in Europe. Gambling was later legalized in other major world centers, including Macau in 1911 and, in the United States, Nevada in 1931 and New Jersey in 1976. These locations remain among the worldʼs leading gambling centers. In 2019, for example, Macauʼs gambling industry generated more than $36 billion in revenue. Countries with large numbers of casinos include the United States, Russia, France, the United Kingdom, Canada, Argentina, and Germany. Among the worldʼs largest casino complexes are Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods Resort Casino in the United States and The Venetian Macao in Macau.

Today, casinos operate as specialized venues for games such as roulette, blackjack, baccarat, casino poker variants such as Three Card Poker and Caribbean Stud Poker, dice games, especially craps, and electronic gambling machines, including slot machines and video poker machines.

Casinos in Ukraine

In Ukraine, as elsewhere, the casino developed out of earlier forms of gambling, including dice games, which are documented on Ukrainian lands from the period of Kyivan Rus and are known worldwide from antiquity. In the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries, Kyiv and Odesa were important centers of gambling culture, with European-style clubs and gambling houses. During the Soviet period, gambling and casinos were prohibited for many decades. The first officially sanctioned casino in the USSR opened in 1989 at the Savoy Hotel in Moscow. The first casino in independent Ukraine opened in 1991 at the Hotel Rus in Kyiv; it had eight gaming tables and eight slot machines. In 1992, the casinos Split, Budapest, and  Zaporizhzhia opened in Kyiv, followed by Zero in Donetsk. Later, casinos were opened in Kharkiv, Odesa, Dnipro, and other cities.

Modern casinos form part of a broader gambling sector that includes land-based venues, online gambling, sports betting, and state lotteries. Their development is closely connected to government regulation, tax policy, and changes in mass entertainment. From 2009 to 2020, the Law of Ukraine “On the Prohibition of Gambling Business in Ukraine” remained in force. In 2020, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine adopted the Law of Ukraine “On State Regulation of Activities Concerning the Organization and Conduct of Gambling,” which legalized land-based casinos, subject to specific requirements, including minimum space requirements, as well as other forms of gambling.

Cultural Representation

The casino is a prominent theme in world literature, including Stefan Zweigʼs “Twenty-Four Hours in the Life of a Woman” (1927), Ian Flemingʼs “Casino Royale” (1953), and Hunter S. Thompsonʼs “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” (1971). It is also widely represented in film and television, for example in Martin Scorseseʼs crime drama “Casino” (USA, 1995), Louis Malleʼs “Atlantic City” (France-Canada, 1980), winner of the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival, the television series “Las Vegas” (USA, 2003–2008), and several films in the James Bond franchise, including “Casino Royale” (2006). Literature and film reflect the ambivalent public perception of gambling: it is often romanticized as a symbol of risk and freedom, yet also associated with moral danger and social decline. This duality reflects historical shifts in public attitudes, from prohibition and moral stigma to legalization and institutionalization as a sector of commercial entertainment.