Portrait of Giacomo Casanova
Remained famous as an incurable womanizer, Giacomo Casanova he had, in addition to women, another great passion: gambling.
Nothing unusual actually for a doc Venetian like him, since vice was an integral part of the charm of the splendid lagoon city, whose inhabitants, as always, could not resist the call of the bet and the gaming table.
Venice, queen of gambling:the first casino in the world
As a demonstration of what has been said so far, just think that in Venice, in the distant 1638 , the first casino in the world was created , the famous Ca 'Vendramin Calergi , of which Casanova, coincidentally, became a frequent visitor.
There could not have been a more suitable place for the birth of what would later become a real institution of gambling, since it was for centuries that in Venice the citizens loved to entertain themselves with this somewhat licentious and, almost always , linked to the conquest of women.
What could be more congenial to someone like Giacomo Casanova?
Actor Heath Ledger is Casanova in a film
Casanova and the cards
And indeed, as easily imaginable, for the viveur most famous of the eighteenth century, whose fame as an unrepentant womanizer has unfortunately clouded his much more complex and eclectic personality (he was a politician, a spy, a writer, a magician, a librarian and a historian), the casino practically became a second home.
For him it was the best:in this place of perdition, in fact, Casanova could give free rein, simultaneously, to two of the greatest passions that marked his existence, namely gambling and ladies.
This is clearly highlighted in the famous memoirs that the extravagant character left us.
In them, the most famous Don Juan in Italy admits his weaknesses in black and white, filling the story with anecdotes and details.
It informs us, for example, of the many debts contracts and, often, healed thanks to his irresistible seductive weapons.
After all, hours and hours spent betting on numbers and betting on victories that did not always occur often left their pockets empty.
It was here that irresistible charm came to the rescue of the crafty playboy, that by bewitching the richest ladies, he almost always managed to get them to donate the money necessary to repay the creditors.
Not only that:not infrequently Casanova could continue to entertain himself at the game table exclusively thanks to the generosity of his lovers.
Gambling in the time of Casanova
The "basseta":a fifteenth-century game of chance
We can say that the Venetians had gambling in their blood.
As we have said, it existed and was in fact widespread in the city well before the establishment of the Calergi casino.
In the 1400s, in particular, the basseta. was furious
It was a card game :with reference to five of them, the aim was to guess if the next one would have a higher or lower value than the previous one.
A simple dynamic after all, but which at the time fascinated a lot, so much so that getting together to play with it was a habit that almost no Venetian could resist.
In this regard, a popular saying circulated in Venice, namely " a messeta in the morning, a basseta after lunch, a woman after dinner".
A mix of sacred and profane that gives a good idea of the way of conceiving the life of the Venetians of the time and beyond.
Giacomo Casanova is, after all, the perfect embodiment of this light, irreverent and goliardic way of living existence.
The casino is online today
Time passes and fashions change, but the substance often remains the same.
Gambling and casinos, centuries after their invention, are anything but at sunset, on the contrary.
In reality, the way of conceiving, experiencing and enjoying them has simply changed.
In the digital age, the casino can only be online.
The Internet is a medium that we all own now and which we can no longer do without, which we use to inform ourselves, learn about, have fun, buy and, why not, gamble.
If it is true that once the Italian law was one of the most restrictive on the subject, recently the legislation has changed and gambling, some types of gambling and certain kinds of betting, have become completely legal.
Obviously in compliance with certain rules.
This means that we also currently online casinos are lawful and regulated ( NetBet online roulette).
In this way, the Italian government has followed in the footsteps of many other European states.
It has the exclusive power as regards the granting of licenses to those who explicitly request them, whether it is a brand national, European or extra-European.
The important thing, of course, is that it fully complies with the regulations in force ( Photo gives: parentesistoriche.altervista.org, stile.it and venezia.myblog.it).