Casinos are a much older institution than many people believe. The word casino comes from the Italian language and makes reference to a special kind of luxurious villa that was built outside the city, but it was not until the 19th century when the new meaning of this term came up in relation to gambling. The connection is clear since, in those times, casinos were the place where the members of the high society found a refuge, like online casino.

Maybe the most important society when it comes to relating gaming with an appropriate establishment was the American society, where Saloons as the one depicted in films appeared. After that, gambling was prohibited until Las Vegas obtained a special permit in 1931 and that was the beginning of the first real casinos in the USA.

Since then, both in Europe and Las Vegas the casino venues as we know them today started taking shape with their millions of lights, bad and good luck streaks, legendary casino players and cheaters and British secret agents drinking Martini.

As to bad luck streaks, Syrian player Fouad al-Zayat is considered by many as the casino player who lost more money in history. He is said to have lost 23 million dollars playing casino games at the Aspinallis Casino in London. On the other side of the scale we find Joseph Jagger who in 1873 was able to win two million francs, a real fortune at the time.