History of Casino of Bagni di Lucca is really interesting. For many historicians this was the FIRST casino in the World.
In 1308 Lucca was a small republic with Thermal stations, the Countess Matilde regulated gambling, allowing it only inside Thermal buildings, with a small tax to cover needs of daily meals of poor people. In the Conte di Montecristo by Alexandre Dumas (novel set from 1815 to 1838) there's a remind about Major Bartolomeo Cavalcanti losina a fortune at roulette tables in Bagni di Lucca.
In the following years there was the invention of roulette (there's still a dispute about the first roulette, Paris or Lucca, someone say a nobleman from Paris saw it in Lucca then back to Paris replied it).
Before the roulette there was many games played in Lucca, I have the honor to know a local historician, and during a visit he showed me an let me play some of reconstruction of ancient game tables he did.
I'll show you some photo I did personally at Bagni di Lucca historic association museum.
This is a ancient illustration in a thermal building about roulette gambling:
In 1981 Lucca was the first Italian town to open a Casino Municipale without central government permission. It lasted only few hours, police came quickly to close it, and municipality got a big fine from state government.
|