Editing Monaco (section)

===Gambling industry===
[[File:Le casino de Monte-Carlo.JPG|thumb|left|[[Monte Carlo Casino]]]]

The plan for casino gambling was drafted during the reign of [[Florestan I, Prince of Monaco|Florestan I]] in 1846. Under Louis-Philippe's [[Petite bourgeoisie|petite-bourgeois]] regime a dignitary such as the [[Monarchy of Monaco|Prince of Monaco]] was not allowed to operate a gambling house.<ref name="state1"/> All this changed in the dissolute [[Second French Empire]] under [[Napoleon III]]. The [[House of Grimaldi]] was in dire need of money.

The towns of [[Menton, France|Menton]] and [[Roquebrune-Cap-Martin|Roquebrune]], which had been the main sources of income for the Grimaldi family for centuries, were now accustomed to a much-improved [[standard of living]] and lenient taxation thanks to the Sardinian intervention and clamoured for financial and political concession, even for separation. The Grimaldi family hoped the newly legal industry would help alleviate the difficulties they faced, above all the crushing debt the family had incurred, but Monaco's first casino would not be ready to operate until after [[Charles III, Prince of Monaco|Charles III]] assumed the throne in 1856.

The grantee of the princely concession (licence) was unable to attract enough business to sustain the operation and, after relocating the casino several times, sold the concession to French casino magnates [[François Blanc|François]] and Louis Blanc for 1.7&nbsp;million francs.

The Blancs had already set up a highly successful casino (in fact the largest in Europe) in [[Bad Homburg|Bad-Homburg]] in the Grand Duchy of [[Hesse-Homburg]], a small German principality comparable to Monaco, and quickly petitioned Charles III to rename a depressed seaside area known as "Les Spelugues (Den of Thieves)" to "Monte Carlo (Mount Charles)."<ref name="Craps">{{cite web |url=http://www.crapsdicecontrol.com/monte_carlo.htm |title=History of Monte Carlo Casino |publisher=Craps Dice Control |access-date=28 April 2012 |archive-date=30 April 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120430065735/http://www.crapsdicecontrol.com/monte_carlo.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> They then constructed their casino in the newly dubbed "Monte Carlo" and cleared out the area's less-than-savoury elements to make the neighbourhood surrounding the establishment more conducive to tourism.
[[File:Monte Carlo Casino, Monaco - interior- (2) (32774947955).jpg|thumb|Atrium in Monte Carlo Casino]]
The Blancs opened [[Le Grand Casino de Monte Carlo]] in 1858 and the casino benefited from the tourist traffic the newly built French railway system created.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.iptv.org/series.cfm/9038/rick_steves_europe/ep:504 |title=Rick Steves' Europe: Little Europe: San Marino, Monaco, Vatican City, Liechtenstein, and Andorra |access-date=27 April 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121114170925/http://www.iptv.org/series.cfm/9038/rick_steves_europe/ep:504 |archive-date=14 November 2012 |url-status=dead}}</ref> Due to the combination of the casino and the railroads, Monaco finally recovered from the previous half-century of economic slump and the principality's success attracted other businesses.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ricksteves.com/tvr/littleeurope504_scr.htm |title=Rick Steves Europe: Little Europe: Five Microcountries |publisher=Ricksteves.com |access-date=28 May 2012 |archive-date=11 July 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120711235819/http://www.ricksteves.com/tvr/littleeurope504_scr.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> In the years following the casino's opening, Monaco founded its [[Oceanographic Museum]] and the [[Monte Carlo Opera House]], 46 hotels were built and the number of jewellers operating in Monaco increased by nearly five-fold. In an apparent effort not to overtax citizens, it was decreed that the Monégasque citizens were prohibited from entering the casino unless they were employees.<ref>{{cite web |author=Keremcan |url=https://www.gamblingherald.com/why-do-monaco-laws-forbid-locals-from-gambling/ |title=Why Do Monaco Laws Forbid Locals from Gambling? |work=Gambling Herald |date=23 August 2016 |access-date=7 December 2017 |archive-date=8 December 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171208003410/https://www.gamblingherald.com/why-do-monaco-laws-forbid-locals-from-gambling/ |url-status=live }}</ref> By 1869, the casino was making such a vast sum of money that the principality could afford to end tax collection from the Monegasques—a masterstroke that was to attract affluent residents from all over Europe in a policy that still exists today.
[[File:MONTE-CARLO BAY HOTEL ^ RESORT 10 - panoramio.jpg|thumb|left|Monte-Carlo Bay Hotel & Resort overlooks the Mediterranean Sea]]
Today, [[Société des bains de mer de Monaco]], which owns Le Grand Casino, still operates in the original building that the Blancs constructed and has since been joined by several other casinos, including the Le Casino Café de Paris, the Monte Carlo Sporting Club & Casino and the Sun Casino. The most recent{{when|date=June 2020}} addition in Monte Carlo is the [[Monte-Carlo Bay Hotel & Resort|Monte Carlo Bay Casino]], which sits on 4 hectares of the Mediterranean Sea; among other things, it offers 145 slot machines, all equipped with "[[ticket-in, ticket-out]]" (TITO). It is the first Mediterranean casino to use this technology.<ref name="Porter">{{cite book |year=2006 |title=Frommer's Provence and the Riviera (Fifth. ed.) |author=Porter, D. |author2=D. Prince |publisher=Wiley Publishing Inc.}}</ref>