Casinos are as old as gambling,
itself. Early forms of gambling existed in ancient Egypt as far back as
2630 BCE. But what people know as a casino first appeared in Venice,
Italy, in the 15th century. In fact, the word casino comes from the
Italian for “little house.” The Casino di Venezia, originally called the
Ridotto, opened on the Grand Canal in 1638 by the Great Council of
Venice to provide controlled gambling during the carnival season.
This “casino” was a theater first, which had side rooms for gambling
were where patrons went during breaks in performances. Venice was a
trendsetter when it came to casinos, and 100 years later there were over
120 of these gambling houses around the city.
Spring forward a couple hundred years to America’s Old West, where
gambling was a major part of life, especially in the mining boom towns
and on riverboats plying its rivers. Back then, the most popular game
was Keno, and the next most popular, poker in all its forms.
The
next pivotal moment in the history of casinos was the creation of the
Liberty Bell, the first slot machine, by Charles Fey 257 years later. It
had three reels of symbols, including horseshoes, diamonds, spades,
hearts, and, of course, the Liberty Bell, itself. The bell was the most
valuable and jackpot-paying symbol.
In no part of the world did gambling take place so openly and on such a
large scale than in San Francisco during the Victorian era. San
Franciscans wagered in nearly every possible manner, including horse
races, sporting contests, card games, wheels-of-fortune, and impromptu
barroom arguments on every conceivable subject. At the beginning of the
20th century, more than 3,000 machines operated freely, enticing
customers from busy sidewalks into the saloons and cigar stores that
proliferated throughout the city.
Gambling on a mass scale spread across the world. Las Vegas eventually
became known as the gaming capital. It had it all---glitz, glamour, and
dazzling entertainment. When Nevada legalized gambling in 1931, Las
Vegas grew rapidly. Ten years later, the first casino, El Rancho Vegas,
paved the way for other famous establishments like the Flamingo, the
Sands, and the Golden Nugget.
Casino Collectibles
Over the decades, saloons and casinos have generated a wide range of
collectible items, from vintage playing cards and dice to casino
chips and tokens and slot machines.
Keno,
a variation of lotto and the forerunner of bingo, was one of the
most profitable and popular games for Old West saloons. Played as
early as the 1850s, it consisted of a device made of turned wood
attached to a wooden stand. The goose, or hopper, was attached to
the stand. In it were 99 wooden or ivory numbered balls. Other
pieces included a board to hold the balls as they were dispensed
from the goose neck, a tally chart, a counter to monitor the
withdrawn balls, a peg board and pegs, a set of 200 keno cards and
button-like markers to cover the winning numbers. An announcer would
shout out the numbers from the pellets taken from the keno goose to
the players, who would in turn cover those numbers on their cards.
The winner was the first player to cover five number in a horizontal
row.
One of the most popular vintage casino collectibles is the casino
chip. Each represents a piece of history, often bearing the logo or
design of a specific casino. Collectors seek rare and vintage chips,
which can appreciate in value over time. The condition, rarity, and
historical significance of a chip can greatly affect its worth.
Vintage
playing cards from casinos are another sought-after item. These
cards often feature unique designs and branding, making them highly
collectible. Some collectors focus on complete decks, while others
seek individual cards with distinctive artwork or markings.
Collectors prize casino dice for their history and authenticity.
Used in casino games like craps, dice are often marked with the
casino’s name or logo. Collectors look for dice in excellent
condition and often seek out specific colors or styles associated
with certain casinos.
Slot machines, on the other hand, are larger and more expensive to
collect. Vintage slot machines, especially those in working
condition, can be valuable. Collectors prize them for their
intricate mechanical designs and nostalgic charm.
A casino token is a small disc used instead of currency in a casino.
Early gamblers used coins, nuggets, or pieces of gold and silver,
paper money, or tokens. Gambling houses designed the casino or poker
chip to bring standardization to the betting process. Upscale
gambling houses had tokens made from bone or ivory, which could be
easily forged. Others used paper or wood chips.
In the 1880s, companies began producing uniform size clay tokens
using a compression mold technique. The chips proved to be fragile.
It wasn’t until the 1950s that other materials began to be used.
Chip manufacturers added caulk and sand to the clay, and the modern
composite chip was born.
The Franklin Mint produced the first casino tokens for Harrah's Reno
and Lake Tahoe Casinos in 1965, when the rising price of silver made
the use of actual silver dollars for gaming purposes a problem. Good
only in the issuing casino, players could drop them into slot
machines or toss them onto a card table to place a bet. Eventually,
the coins themselves became collectibles, whether manufactured by
Franklin Mint or companies such as Osborne Coinage, Michigan Tool &
Engineering, Product Engineering, or Wendell's.
Some of the most sought after vintage casino tokens from the late
1960s include the dollar slot tokens minted for the Nevada Club in
Reno, the Nugget in Carson City, and the Thunderbird and Silver
Slipper in Las Vegas. But the issuance of the Eisenhower or "Ike"
dollar in 1971 cut the use of dollar slot tokens short. While
millions of collectible strikes of the Ike dollar contained 40
percent silver, tens of millions more general circulation coins
contained only copper and nickel. Because of this new supply of
non-silver dollars, the practice of minting tokens for the casinos
ceased.
In addition to used casino tokens, collectors also seek out
uncirculated proofs, which mints struck in smaller numbers than the
coins designed to be endlessly dropped into slot machines. Proof
collectors look for sets sold in numbered albums, as well as
individually slabbed coins.
Collectible Casino Equipment
One of the most ubiquitous pieces of casino equipment is the
roulette wheel. The game of roulette evolved from the Italian game
Biribi. In the game, a player may choose to place a bet on a single
number, various groupings of numbers, the color red or black,
whether the number is odd or even, or if the number is high or low.
To determine the winning number, a croupier spins a wheel in one
direction, then spins a ball in the opposite direction around a
tilted circular track running around the outer edge of the wheel.
The ball eventually loses momentum, passes through an area of
deflectors, and falls onto the wheel and into one of the colored and
numbered pockets on the wheel. The winnings are then paid to anyone
who has placed a successful bet.
Gamblers have been playing roulette in its present form since in
Paris in 1796.The roulette wheels used in the casinos of Paris in
the late 1790s had red for the single zero and black for the double
zero. To avoid confusion, casinos chose the color green for the
zeros in roulette wheels starting in the 19th century, becoming the
most popular casino game.
While the single zero wheel spread around the world, the double zero
wheel became dominant, after its introduction in the gambling halls
of New Orleans, then traveling further on the riverboats of the
times.
Another
gaming device that has become collectible is the card shuffler.
Patents regarding card shuffling devices started to appear in the
United States around the end of the 19th century. These machines
were often complex with many mechanical parts to achieve card
retrieval, shuffling and distribution with pseudo-randomness.
In 1878, Henry Ash proposed an apparatus to shuffle cards. His
device was a box with an open top where the operator would place the
deck. The operator would then slightly shake the box to make the
cards fall through a comb at the bottom of the box. About half of
the cards would fall into the lower compartment while the rest were
still in the upper compartment. The operator would take these upper
cards, pack them together and do the same with the lower cards. The
two packs would be placed upon each other to form a new deck and the
operation could be repeated for better shuffling.
In 1892, William H. Ranney filed a patent for a "card shuffling and
dealing mechanism.” The apparatus was basically an inclined box
attached to the border of the playing table. The operator inserted
the cards from the top of the case where they became trapped inside
a receptacle hold by a lever. The operator would turn a crank which
would slowly lower the bottom wall of the inclined receptacle. At
this point, the device relied upon the friction force between the
cards to achieve some kind of randomness. One card would start to
slide as a result of the steepness and would attract a few cards
with it. The number of cards being released at each turn would
typically vary between one and five cards. The cards fell into
another receptacle and the operator would turn the whole device to
distribute the cards to another player.
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