It used to be that casinos were venues that you'd have to make a special trip to visit, but now you can play casino games online any time of the day or night, no matter where you are. But the casino is not a new thing, they have been going for thousands of years and here are some fascinating facts about them...
1) The first casino to be opened in Nevada was the Pair-O Dice Club, which was opened on Highway 91 in 1931. Highway 31 went on to become the Las Vegas Strip
2) There are more hotel rooms in Las Vegas than in any other city in the world – and the majority of the world's largest hotels are found in the same city.
3) The first slot machine was invented in 1899 by Charles Fey. It was called the Liberty Bell and is the model that all future slots were designed around.
4) In 1960, there were 16,067 slots machines in Nevada. This number had risen to 405,726 slots in 2019 and now with online slots on so many different websites, the number is infinite!
5) One of the earliest Las Vegas casinos was The Flamingo, owned by Bugsy Siegel. He named it after his showgirl girlfriend, Virginia Hill, who had very long legs! The Flamingo has gone through many owners and name changes over the years, but is still in operation today.
6) At the Nugget Casino in Sparks, Nevada, there was a performing elephant named Bertha who entertained the customers there for 37 of her 48 years.
7) Henry VIII enjoyed gambling, but wasn't always the luckiest player. Once during a game of dice he gamble and lost the bells of St Paul's Cathedral.
8) The French invented playing cards and the four suits were meant to represent different classes in French society. The hearts were for the clergy, the diamonds for traders, the clubs for commoners and the spades for noblemen. After the French Revolution, a new pack without the royal faces was invented but Napoleon brought the Kings, Queens and Jacks back in 1805.
9) It's said that the first sandwich was invented because the Earl of Sandwich couldn't bear to leave a game of poker to get something to eat. Instead, his valet brought him a piece of meat between two slices of bread and the 'sandwich' was born!
10) Today, millions of people can play casino games day and night thanks to the presence of so many online casinos. We don't think it'll be the end of Vegas though – it will always be a place of pilgrimage for those gamblers who love Sin City and its devotion to casino games.
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