Spa

Spa gave the world the word "spa," and its casino — chartered in 1763 — is close to a founding document of the entire genre of resort-town gaming houses this atlas is built around. Set in the wooded hills of the Ardennes, the town's mineral springs drew European nobility for two centuries before gaming rooms were added as a formal amenity between water treatments, a pattern later repeated almost exactly at Baden-Baden and Wiesbaden.

The modern town keeps a quieter, more provincial character than Monte Carlo or the Riviera resorts, closer in feel to a well-preserved spa town than a gambling capital, though its casino's poker room has hosted televised European tournament stops that bring a younger, more international crowd through for a few days at a time. The nearby Spa-Francorchamps racing circuit gives the town a second, unrelated claim to fame that many visitors combine with a casino evening.