I recently had the opportunity to go to the casino in Venice, Italy. For anyone who is interested, here's my report.
I didn't go to Venice to go to the casino, but while we were there I thought I would look to see whether there was any BJ of interest.
There are two casinos in Venice: the "Noghera" is close to the airport, while the "di Venizia" is on the Grand Canal. "di Venizia" has a more interesting history, and we were staying on the Grand Canal", so we went there.
The casino claims to be the oldest continually operating casino in the world, and Casanova is said to have lost a lot of money at it.
If you read the reviews of the casino on travel sites, you will find that most posters obviously expect a Las Vegas - style casino and so are disappointed. However, I have been to other "traditional" casinos (which have something of a country club atmosphere) in Europe and found it to be delightful.
There is a dress code, but it only states that gentlemen must wear a jacket. I wondered about my shoes - I had intended to buy some dress shoes while in Italy, but found none to my liking so had to wear my tennis shoes - but no one blinked.
The casino itself is relatively small. It is housed in a palazzo, and has 3 tables for BJ, 2 roulette tables, a couple tables each for Caribbean Poker, Chemin de Fer, and Punto Banco. Downstairs there is a part of the casino that does not require formal attire with some slot machines.
The crowd is older and somewhat subdued. Anyone looking for the noise and bustle of a Las Vegas casino will be disappointed. But if you're looking for an ambiance reminiscent of the casinos seen in the Sean Connery Bond movies, then this is a good place for you.
Unfortunately, the blackjack is not so good - all dealt by CSMs. The other rules were pretty good (DA2, for example), but I couldn't be bothered to play seriously. Although I was disappointed, I did play a little at the 10 euro table min just for fun. A streak of luck pushed us up to +140 before a couple of losses pushed us back down to +100 at which time we decided to quit while we could say we did better than Casanova.
A fun experience, but don't make the trip for the blackjack alone.
