Casino Monte Carlo
Recognized as one of Europe's number one tourist destinations, Monte Carlo has become the richest among the four quarters of Monaco. It is known for its casino complex where a big opera and ballet theater exist. In the year 1861, gaming room and casino operations were given to an individual businessman, and operated by a private company that named themselves the Societe des Bains de Mer. At the moment, the government possesses the majority interest and a number of clubs and hotels have been established in order to further promote tourism and trade in the area.
The casino of Monte Carlo has become even more popular over the years due to the fact that because of it being a glamorous location, it has been the basis for the location described in Ian Fleming's very first James Bond novel written in 1953, Casino Royal, where, in the book, there was a resort and casino that was based on the style and fashion of that found in Monte Carlo.
In 1875, Monte Carlo gained even more publicity because of a certain Joseph Jagger, a man from Yorkshire who was formerly a British engineer oftentimes known as "the man who broke the bank" who discovered and made money by finding a flaw in one of the roulette wheels of the casino. In order to do this, Jagger had to hire 6 people whose job was to religiously record outcomes of the Beaux-Arts Casino's six roulette wheels. In doing so, he found out that among the six, one wheel definitely has shown a bias wherein the numbers seven, eight, nine, seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, twenty two, twenty eight and twenty nine appeared more number of times than all the other numbers. So on the seventh of July in the year 1875 with the help of his fellow comrade gamblers, they were able to break the Monte Carlo casino's bank, taking back with him a sum of about 2 million French francs. He never came back to Monte Carlo ever since.
For those of you who do not know, the casino of Monte Carlo also served as the setting for the film Golden Eye, which is the seventeenth Bond film to come into the block busters, which starred Pierce Brosnan for the leading role of James Bond. Many other novels have been written through the years, that had its setting in the casinos of Monte Carlo. It is not only a popular tourist destination not only for gamblers, but also for those who would simply like to do some sight-seeing. Monte Carlo and its casinos are forever romanticized in various films and novels.