The Casino, the first gambling house in the world, "forerunner" for all other European gambling houses, and the construction of the Regio Casino (1837-1839), the first European gambling house not inside the spa.

The history of the Bagni di Lucca Casino.
It was perhaps even the first casino in history. Below, with a leap over many centuries, we tell you his story: his rise and subsequent decline, until its closure over sixty years ago, when the concession expired. But it did not end there, in fact the room was then reopened twice in more recent times.
Today the Bagni di Lucca casino operates as a gambling museum and as an automated room with many gaming devices.
Everything started with the Countess Matilde.
We are in the very distant 1308. In the Republic of Lucca there is a very popular spa complex, even for pilgrims and the needy. The Countess Matilde, a woman of good heart, never denied a meal and a healing bath to those who could not afford to pay it. But how can these expenses be sustained without burdening citizens' taxes? Simple: regulating the game that took place in taverns and gambling dens, confining it to the spa. Thus the first casino prototype was born: there were no roulette or slot machines (invented only centuries later), but the logic and the organization were similar to those of the gaming rooms opened later in Europe, starting from the seventeenth century.
Restructuring in 1800 and closure in 1953.
Let's jump over five centuries and arrive in 1800, a century in which the Borbone family gave fame and popularity to the Casino of Bagni di Lucca. The idea started from the Duchess Maria Luisa who, in 1819, began to bring order to the game. His work continued with Carlo Ludovico di Borbone who, acknowledging his mother's teachings, authorized a Parisian architect to build a building in Ponte Serraglio for use as a casino. This became the great Royal Casino, inaugurated in 1839 as part of a policy that will make Bagni di Lucca one of the most important spas in Europe, as well as a meeting place for the European aristocracy and upper middle class.
For several decades the combination of spas and gambling games met with great success, attracting many important guests from all over Europe.
Unfortunately, however, the splendor of the gambling hall was gradually fading, also due to the opening of other important casinos that "stole the show" at the Bagni di Lucca casino.
Its final closure took place after the war, exactly in 1953, when the existing concession expired. The age of the Bagni di Lucca Casino - within the structure of which the first European roulette table is said to have appeared.