Venice

Venice's relationship with gambling is older than any other city in this atlas — the Republic licensed the Ridotto in 1638 specifically to move Carnival-season gaming out of unregulated private palazzi, four centuries before "regulated gaming" became a policy phrase anywhere else. That history is embedded in the city's fabric rather than confined to a single building: the Casinò di Venezia's winter home, Ca' Vendramin Calergi, is one Grand Canal palazzo among hundreds, reachable only by vaporetto or on foot along the calli.

Today the city separates its historic and high-volume gaming identities across two sites — the atmospheric, museum-like Grand Canal palazzo in winter, and a larger, more contemporary hall near the airport for summer volume — a split that mirrors Venice's broader challenge of being simultaneously a living museum and a functioning modern city.