CASINO HOTEL

Casino

The Las Vegas Strip is renowned for its high concentration of casino resort hotels

In modern English, a casino is a facility which houses and accommodates certain types of gambling activities. The industry that deals in casinos is called the gaming industry. Casinos are most commonly built near or combined with hotels, restaurants, retail shopping, cruise ships or other tourist attractions. There is much debate over whether or not the social and economic conse uences of casino gambling outweigh the initial revenue that may be generated. In the !nited States, many states are grappling with high unemployment and budget deficits and are now turning to legali"ing casinos, often in places that are not tourist destinations. Some casinos are also #nown for hosting live entertainment events, such as stand$up comedy, concerts, and sporting events.

Etymology and usage

The term %Casino% is of Italian origin, the root word being %Casa% &house' and originally meant a small country villa, summerhouse or pavilion. The word changed to refer to a building built for pleasure, usually on the grounds of a larger Italian villa or pala""o. Such buildings were used to host civic town functions ( including dancing, music listening, and gambling. There are e)amples of such casinos at Villa *iulia and Villa +arnese. In modern day Italian, this term designates a bordello &also called %casa chiusa%, literally %closed house%', while the gambling house is spelled casin with an accent. ,uring the -.th century, the term %casino% came to include other public buildings where pleasurable activities, including gambling, and sports too# place. /n e)ample of this type of building is the 0ewport Casinoin 0ewport, 1hode Island. 0ot all casinos were used for gaming. The Copenhagen Casino was a theatre, #nown for the use made of its hall for mass public meetings during the -232 1evolution which made ,enmar# a constitutional monarchy. !ntil -.45 it was a well$#nown ,anish theatre.647 The 8an#o Casino located in 8an#o, +inland $ one of that town9s most conspicuous landmar#s $ was never used for gambling. 1ather, it was a ban uet hall for the 1ussian nobility which fre uented this spa resort in the late -.th century, and is presently used as a restaurant. The Catalina Casino,637 a famous landmar# overloo#ing /valon 8arbor on Santa Catalina Island, California, has never been used for traditional games of chance, which were already outlawed in California by the time it was built.

In military and non$military usage in Spanish and *erman, a casino or kasino is an officers9 mess: curiously, in Italian $ the source$language of the word $ a %casino% is either a brothel, a mess, or a noisy environment, while a gaming house is called a %casin;%. / confusing linguistic false friend for translators.

8istory of gambling houses

The precise origin of gambling is un#nown. The Chinese recorded the first official account of the practice in <4== >C, but it is generally believed that gambling in some form or another has been seen in almost every society in history. +rom the /ncient *ree#s and 1omans to 0apoleon9s +rance and Eli"abethan England, much of history is filled with stories of entertainment based on games of chance. The first #nown European gambling house, not called a casino although meeting the modern definition, was the 1idotto, established in Venice, Italy in -?42 to provide controlled gambling during the carnival season. It was closed in -55= as the city government perceived it to impoverish the local gentry. In /merican history, early gambling establishments were #nown as saloons. The creation and importance of saloons was greatly influenced by four ma@or cities: 0ew Arleans, St. Louis, Chicago and San +rancisco. It was in the saloons that travelers could find people to tal# to, drin# with, and often gamble with. ,uring the early <=th century in /merica, gambling became outlawed and banned by state legislation and social reformers of the time. 8owever, in -.4-, gambling was legali"ed throughout the state of 0evada. /merica9s first legali"ed casinos were set up in those places. In -.52 0ew Bersey allowed gambling in/tlantic City, now /merica9s second largest gambling city.

*ambling in casinos

Slot machines in /tlantic City. Slot machines are a standard attraction of casinos

Cost @urisdictions worldwide limit gambling to persons over the age of license &-? to <- years of age in most countries which permit the operation of casinos'. Customers gamble by playing games of chance, in some cases with an element of s#ill, such as craps, roulette, baccarat, blac#@ac#, and video po#er. Cost games played have mathematically$determined odds that ensure the house has at all times an overall advantage over the players. This can be e)pressed more precisely by the notion of e)pected value, which is uniformly negative &from the player9s perspective'. This advantage is called the house edge. In games such as po#er where players play against each other, the house ta#es a commission called the ra#e. Casinos sometimes give out complimentary items to gamblers.

Payout is the percentage of funds &%winnings%' returned by players. Casinos in the !S/ say that a player sta#ing money won from the casino is playing with house money. Video Lottery Cachines &slot machines' have become one of the most popular form of gambling in casinos. /s of <=-- investigative reports have started calling into uestion whether the modern$day slot$machine is addictive. 657

,esign
Casino design $ regarded as a psychological e)ercise $ is an intricate process that involves optimising floor plan, dDcor and atmospherics to encourage consumer gambling. +actors influencing consumer gambling tendencies include sound, odour and lighting. 0atasha ,ow SchEll, an anthropologist at the Cassachusetts Institute of Technology, highlights the audio directors at Silicon *amingFs decision to ma#e its slot machines resonate in, Gthe universally pleasant tone of C, sampling e)isting casino soundscapes to create a sound that would please but not clashH. ,r /lan 8irsch, founder of the Smell I Taste Treatment and 1esearch +oundation in Chicago, studied the impact of certain scents on gamblers, discerning that a pleasant albeit unidentifiable odour released by Las Vegas slots machines generated appro)imately J=K more in daily revenue. 8e suggested that the scent acted as an aphrodisiac, facilitating a more aggressive form of gambling. Casino designer 1oger Thomas is credited with implementing a successful, disruptive design for the Las Vegas Lynn 1esortsF casinos in <==2. 8e bro#e casino design convention by introducing natural sunlight and flora to appeal to a female demographic. Thomas inserted s#ylights and anti ue cloc#s, defying the commonplace notion that a casino should be a timeless space.

Chaves Hotel Casino / RDLM Arquitectos Associados

Architects: RDLM Arquitectos Associados Location: Chaves, Portugal Project Area: 31,312 sqm Project Year: 2 ! Photographs: "#rgio $erreira, Pro%oto

Architecture Collaborators: Rui Lacerda, Diogo Lacerda, M&rio Manaia, Carlos Moreira, 'o(o Castelo, 'o(o Rodrigues, 'os# Costa Pereira, Rui )enha, $ernando Marques de *liveira Structure Engineering: +,tor "ousa Electrical Engineering: -arreto Costa Mechanical Engineering: David .arrido Infrastructure Engineering: Heitor Maia Landscape: Lu,s Aresta e Marisa .ra/a Contractor: Mota 0 1ngil Client: "olverde From the architect. The Hotel casino Cha es is a structure that is not reducible to the ga!bling area but to other facilities that co!ple!ent each other" for!ing a #hole" #here the li ing and fun fuse$ %pen spaces to the cit& so that the cit& can ta'e ad antage of the!$ It is situated in one of the entrances of the cit& of Cha es" as if it #ere a front door$ The land is #orth b& its location" shape and position on the cit&$ I!ple!ented at the highest point of the land" it de elops at arious le els" so!e buried and opening in different directions" assu!ing the!sel es as #alls" defining spaces and contain!ent of land$

The set is !olded to the terrain !erging #ith the landscape" appearing and disappearing$ The different di!ensions of the plot define different arch centerings$

The Hotel and the Casino had to be designed and i!ple!ented to beco!e a alence bet#een urban use and the distancing fro! the place" a reference for those #ho enter in the cit&" and for those #ho are loo'ing fro! it$ It #as i!portant to !aintain a dialogue #ith the cit&$ The basic idea in this project is the basic ph&sical boundaries created b& geo!etric lines" turned into #alls that define spaces #ith different alences and #a&s of being" but that can be e(perienced se)uentiall&$ The stone" the *inc and the concrete are the !aterial support used as the integration solution in the en iron!ent and the chro!atic alue of the landscape$