Today we dedicate this post to little known aspects of Monte Carlo's history. The aspects following the foundation of the current Casino by M. Blanc are better known, but we will return to him in a next post.
We rely on books, translating transcripts from the same books.
A-Le Jeu Public et Monaco, Le Docteur Prompt 1882
B-Guides des pays d´azur: Monaco, Monte-Carlo et les environs, Philippe Casimir, 1903

“The prince granted, in October 1856, to a public limited company, represented by MM. Napoleon Langlois and Albert Aubert, the privilege of establishing a gambling house in Monaco. The concession was made for thirty years.
This gambling house did not have the importance of today. It did not have such harmful effects, because it was little known, and the foreigners that Monaco visited were very few.
ONLY JETONS WITH THE VALUE OF 40 SOUS WERE USED (NOTE -WHERE ARE THE JETONS WE HAVE NEVER SEEN ???).
The directors did not make considerable fortunes.
1-THE CASINO FIRST SETS UP, IN MONACO, IN A VERY MODEST APPEARANCE, LOCATED ON THE PLACE OF THE PALACE.
THIS ARRANGEMENT WAS SOON ABANDONED.
2-THE GAMBLING ROOMS WERE TRANSPORTED TO THE PALAIS DE LA CONDAMINE.

Again, they stayed for a short time.
3-THE GAMBLING ROOMS WERE REINSTALLED THEM AGAIN IN MONACO, IN VILLA GARBARINI.
These short-term moves, and frequent changes of owners who retired by selling their privilege ,could not have much prosperity.
The casino of the time did not run on gold.
Charles III had demanded, in the concession granted to concessionary company, that the casino be elevated on the plateau of Spélugues, located a kilometer from the old villa of Monaco.
At this occasion, the prince gave the measure of his concern and his protection for the casino by covering it with his name.
In a decree signed by his hand, HE GIVEN THE POMPUS NAME OF MONTE-CARLO to the site where the new casino was to be built.

On May 13, 1858, the first stone of the current casino was solemnly laid by the young hereditary prince.
However, the business was slow and continued not to prosper for lack of money. It was then that M.BLANC arrived in Monaco. On March 31, 1860, he appeared at MM. Lefèvre, Griois and Jagot, then owners of the Casino. He offered them, at the outset, one million seven hundred thousand francs of their privilege.
This offer, made in a brittle tone, did not suffer comments. The owners, who were not in the most brilliant financial situation, were dazzled by this proposal. They signed the same day an agreement by which they gave up their rights and properties to Mr. BLANC.
The construction of the casino and its annexes was not completed until 1868, that is to say eight years later.
It was then that the Paris-Lyon-Mediterranée company delivered the line from Nice to Monaco.
M.Blanc, director owner of the casino, whose constant goal was to grant all desirable facilities to foreigners to make them fall into this trap known as gambling, considered that Monaco station was too far removed from roulette and trente et quarante (thirty and forty).
He therefore asked the railway administration to establish a station at the very doorstep of the casino, giving him to understand that it would be a source of income for the company. He offered him free land belonging to him to build this new station behind the casino, by the sea.
The company, seduced by these advantages, granted M.Blanc what he asked for. The station of Monte Carlos was projected.
What did the prince do on this occasion?
There was nothing could be done without his permission. The simplest sense meant that he took the interests of his little people, fighting against the exaggerated pretensions of Mr. White.
It was quite the opposite that he did.
The prince, ignoring the claims of the Monegasques, authorized the opening of the new Monte-Carlo station.
This first concession was to be followed by several others which were even more annoying.
Thus the prosperity of the Monaco casino only dates from the opening of the railroad line. That of Monaco and Condamine naturally dates from the same period. But the movement of foreigners heading towards Monaco is distinct from that which heads towards the gambling house; it is so distinct that there are two stations separated by a journey of a few minutes: one leads players to the casino; the other leads foreigners to the Condamine.
And there was a remarkable fair in Monaco, which does not exist in Homburg or Wiesbaden: the movement created by the casino only benefits the casino itself; it is absolutely separate from the one who comes to enrich the city of Monaco and its surroundings. The prince, fully pre-wiped from the desire to be pleasant to the gaming company, did not want to force the players to cross his small state and to leave in their passage a fraction of the gold intended for roulette. He was kind enough to stop the trains at the very door of the establishment where travelers must leave their money. ”

THE ORIGIN OF THE CASINO
“In 1856, Prince Charles III, struck by the ever growing importance of the movement of foreigners on the coast, judging that the imminent opening of the railway would further increase it, authorized the creation of a Casino on the model of those who had made the fortune of Hombourg, Spa and Baden-Baden.
The revolution of Menton and Roquebrune, initiated by the Sardinian agents, had just mutilated the Principality.
…
Desiring nevertheless to ensure resources and, according to the tradition of his family, not to resort to taxes, Charles III granted the concession of the Casino to a Company having as directors MM. Alber Aubert, former director of Charivari and Langlois. This first company, founded with a capital of 2,500,000 francs, settled at the Villa Bellevue, the only one then existing at La Condamine
M.Frossard de Lilbonne took over and was soon replaced by M.Daval. In 1858, the new concessionaires carried the Casino to the Place du Palais, in the house occupied today by the Prince's guards of honor.
M.Daval having ruined himself, the privilege was taken over by the Lefebvre, Griois et Cie company formed by several capitalists of which the Duke of Valmy was most prominent. Mr. Léon Lefebvre was its director.
In this early era, the Casino could not prosper, access to Monaco being difficult. The coast road did not exist and you could only get there by the picturesque but long Corniche road and by sea by means of boats that were rented. Later, only around 1860 a fairly regular service was organized between Noce and Monaco with an old steamer, La Palmaria replaced in 1866 by the steamer Charles III, better keeping the sea.
The new Lefebvre, Griois et Cie Company changed premises again. In 1860 she installed the Casino at the end of the rue de Lorraine in the Villa Gabarini, which was called “La Maison du General”, because until the departure of the Sardinian troops making up the garrison, it served as a residence to the general who commanded them.
…
LE CASINO AUX SPÉLUGUES- As early as 1856, by granting the privilege to the first concessionaires, Prince Charles III had stipulated that, in a determined time, the Casino should be definitively built on the Spélugues promontory. He saw in the Spélugues transformed by the Casino , a social counterpart to the historic city of Monaco.

.
In 1860, to execute the clauses of the contract, the Societé Lefebvre had work started on the Spélugues plateau on land purchased at low cost from Count Rey.
In order to quickly populate the desert which surrounded the building sites of the new Casino, the land was offered free of charge to all those who undertook to build a villa or mansion. No one accepted

In 1862, on a beautiful day in May, the new casino was inaugurated.
M.FRANÇOIS BLANC TAKES THE CONCESSION - The Lefebvre, Griois et Cie Company, which did not have a solid financial base, had pretty much ruined itself with these constructions. She failed to cede her privilege.
M.François Blanc, who had made the Casino de Hombourg a success, was in Paris towards the end of 1862. M.Lefebvre instructed one of his friends to foresee it if he wanted to acquire the concession. M. Blanc did not immediately accept, reflected, inquired.
On March 31, 1863, having made a resolution, he came to Monaco, and went to the office of Director M. Lefebvre. “You are looking to sell your concession” dirt M.Blanc, “I am ready to take it. Think. I will resell at 3 and a half hours, because I have to leave at 4 am with steam and I want to have a solution before returning to Nice ”.
The price of 1,700.00 francs was given in three vouchers on the Banque de France. Immediately it was necessary to obtain the approval of the Prince, who hastened to approve the transfer of the concession. ”
On April 1, 1863, M.Blanc formed the Société Anonyme des Bains de Mer et du Cercle des Etrangers in Monaco, with a term of fifty years, with a share capital of 15 million, represented by 30,000 shares of 500 francs.
Confidence immediately returned, actions were much sought after, and illustrious figures wanted to procure them. Pope Leo XIII, then cardinal, was one of the shareholders of Monte Carlo.”

The Current Casino in 1906