Casinos have long been associated with glitz, glamour, and the thrill of chance, drawing in dreamers and high rollers from around the world. They have this thrill about them that draws people from all walks of life to take a chance and win it big.
They’re also quite well known for making good money. Casinos draw in such large and regular income that when you see a completely shut down and abandoned one, it makes you stop and think: “What could have possibly happened?”. Because of this, the stories of abandoned casinos are often unusual, scary, and quite interesting.
Penthouse Adriatic Club
Cold War era Socialist Yugoslavia definitely wouldn’t be very many peoples’ first pick for an exclusive luxury casino, but one Bob Guccione sought to make it a reality. The founder and owner of Penthouse magazine, Guccione invested $45 million (nowadays’ $400 million) of his own money into the project. Fittingly, the Penthouse Adriatic Club was, of course, a penthouse, in order to match his popular men’s magazine. It was built on top of the Haludovo Palace Hotel, which itself was designed by famous Croatian architect Boris Magaš throughout the late 60’s and early 70’s. The hotel and casino both initially garnered a lot of popularity, with big names such as Saddam Hussain taking a seat to play.
Guccione, however, soon found himself in a pickle when the casino failed to garner any popularity from the locals; Not because they didn’t want to gamble, but because they weren’t allowed to. The socialist rule of the country forbade its own citizens from partaking in gambling, a pastime regarded as a useless and disgusting act of pure capitalistic greed. Because of this, the penthouse casino had a short-lived heyday and closed its doors a year after it was opened, in 1973.
In the modern day, the world around you is usually a lot less restrictive than if you found yourself on the wrong side of the Iron Curtain back in the days of the Cold War. Because of this, not only are casinos around and available everywhere to freely spend some time in, you can even visit one online and try your luck without even leaving your home. Digital casinos are all the rage nowadays, and by far the most popular and accessible option is the well-known Stake.com. It stands as a testament to just how much humanity has made everyday life ever the more convenient.
Big Easy Casino Boat
Back in the early 2000s in Florida, there was a company by the name of Palm Beach Casino Line, and they had a plan; Aquatic casinos. Turning used yachts into new casinos seemed like a good idea, as one could easily move the boat around based on supply and demand, or even parade it around the world to give everyone a chance to try their luck in a unique casino on water.
Palm Beach Casino Line first acquired the vessel that would become known as the “Big Easy” back in 2004. They then proceeded to invest $12 million to turn the 238-foot yacht into what they hoped would be a living legend. By mid-2005, it was done and ready to set sail, but this is when the troubles that would ultimately doom the ship began.
First, it was delayed for several months while the Coast Guard went through and inspected the Big Easy in order to approve its costly renovation and modification. Then, once it was finally approved, Hurricane season began. Hurricane Wilma hit the southern United States, and the Big Easy was forced to evacuate its Floridian dock before it took any serious damage.
Shortly thereafter, it arrived at its temporary home in St. Petersburg, though it would spend considerably more time there than originally planned. Not long after the ship’s arrival, Palm Beach Casino Line entered significant financial turmoil, as their initial investment wasn’t seeing any return. The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in late 2009, with the ship still docked at what was meant to be a temporary spot.
Despite a second attempt in 2010 at finally getting the boat in business, it unfortunately never got to meet its true potential. The Big Easy was dismantled and demolished in 2012 and sold off as meager scrap metal.
Casino di Consonno
Northern Italy is known for its pristine luxury, fashion, and style. One man sought to combine its trademark atmosphere with some good old-fashioned gambling, creating, in his eyes, the “Las Vegas” of Italy. He planned not only to open a casino but to manufacture an entire city full of them.
Mario Bagno was a wealthy Italian real estate entrepreneur who dealt in all kinds of private infrastructure, including residential buildings, roads, and plane runways. In 1962, he bought an entire village for the modern equivalent of $222,000. Bagno carefully chose the location of his manufactured paradise and ended up buying Consonno due to its close proximity to Milan, and generally scenic location. The village was to be his base for what would, in his mind, surely be a small empire of luxury and pizzazz.
To the dismay of the locals, he began demolishing all of the old houses and stables and proceeded to put in enough funding to construct an entire complex of nothing but the most luxurious and fun pieces of property he could think of. The process included destroying every house except the church, as well as leveling parts of mountains and natural landscapes to make way for Mario Bagno’s dream.
Indeed, in the beginning, it was looking to be a success, as many wealthy tourists visited the small city, and many at-the-time celebrities made sure to perform there as well. Consonno was nicknamed the “City of Toys” for its seemingly endless activities. At its peak, it had many different establishments and buildings, including but not limited to a luxury hotel, casino, railway, and a small medieval-style castle. Many establishments were planned but either never finished construction or never even left planning, such as a zoo and race car track.
The City of Toys, however, quickly proved itself metaphorically two-dimensional. Past the initial surface thrills, there wasn’t much of an incentive to stay and there was never much of a permanent population. The city wasn’t much more than a far-away adult theme park that quickly became boring to any frequent visitors. It suffered an economic decline throughout the 1970s, and it was then damaged by landslides due to heavy rainstorms in the area.
The once clean and luxurious Bonsonno is now a ghost town, a failed project that is living (or rather, dead) proof that no matter how much money you throw at it, you cannot manufacture an entire city along with its inhabitants and culture. With a population of zero, if you ever get to visit the city you’ll stumble across a decrepit time capsule to one very rich entrepreneur’s crazy dream.
Montgomery Pass Casino
Located in the same state as the ever-popular Las Vegas, Montgomery Pass is a highway mountain pass in Nevada, located 7,167 feet above sea level, it was home to a small town with a tight-knit population, as well as what was once the “highest casino in the world”.
Montgomery Pass Casino was constructed in the small town in order to provide more income for the town, as well as to be a fun tourist attraction for anyone who happened to be driving through the area. Indeed, it was a success, garnering much local publicity and many tourists who wished to visit the highest casino in the world.
Not much is readily known about why the casino, and by extension, the entire town, ended up being abandoned, but what is known is that they have been that way since some time in the 1990s. The town was left in a decent state, and for a time remained abandoned and standing. However, in 2010, the casino burned down. While the cause of the fire is unknown, Montgomery Pass remains in ruins while old-school charred slot machines and poker tables can be seen strewn about.
While you can no longer visit what was once the highest casino in the world to play a game of poker, you can have the same fun experience at home with modern online poker, which admittedly does serve as a convenient substitute for the hassle of finding a casino yourself.
The Casino of Constanța
The Constanta Casino was a work of art for its time and was once a popular spot for incredibly wealthy and popular figures to visit, socialize, and have some fun. Just off the coast of the black sea lies this monstrous, almost cathedral-looking work of art.
In 1880, the Constanta was built with the help of architects Daniel Renard and Petre Antonescu. It was originally built out of wood before being demolished in 1891 in order to make way for a new rendition, but believe it or not, that still wasn’t the version we know today. In 1910, the third and final iteration of the Constanta finished construction, and it quickly garnered a lot of interest and popularity, which its beautiful and intricate looks certainly contributed to.
By 1914, it was attracting guests such as the Russian Royal Family, but 1914 would also be when things started to go wrong for the Constanta, as that was when WW1 infamously kicked off. By 1916, the building was converted into a makeshift hospital which was used by the Red Cross. This unfortunately made it an attractive target for German air bombing, and it was considerably damaged by the incident.
Post-war, it took a long time for things to get completely back up and running, and the casino finished repairs in 1928. It enjoyed decent traffic and success throughout the interwar period but was unfortunately again bombed in 1941. The damage was much more severe and left the building in ruins.
For a long time, the casino lay dormant and in shambles, but in 2020 it was announced by the Romanian Ministry of Development that they would restore the Constanta to its former glory, and in November of 2024 the overhaul was fully completed. A happy ending for this entry, the Constanta is now available to visit and is just as breathtaking in its architecture as ever.
Key Largo Casino and Hotel
Back in 1974 Las Vegas, the gambling scene was at an all-time high, and this property was looking to make a name for itself. While it was initially called the Ambassador Inn, it went through a two-decade-long phase of being bought and sold to different individuals, before finally becoming the Key Largo Casino and Hotel in 1997. It was renovated to include hundreds of rooms, slot machines, and tables.
Unlike the others mentioned, Key Largo drew people in by trying to be as affordable as possible for people to rent out a room. Because of this, it attracted many working-class individuals looking to try their luck and make it big. The main issue was that these types of people generally weren’t willing to potentially play with and risk huge sums of money, nor were they in a practical position to. Because of this, Key Largo went steadily downhill financially and eventually closed its doors in 2005. However, this isn’t quite the end of the story, as it ended up catching fire two separate times. The first time was in 2008 when a man started a small fire after harvesting scrap copper from it. The bigger fire, however, was in 2013, which ended up costing $4.5 million in damages for the city. The origin of the inferno is unknown and Key Largo was demolished a few months after the catastrophe.
The casinos talked about here all have their own stories, but we may be seeing a winding down of physical ones. With the advent of the online casino, it’s become easier than ever to try your odds from the convenience of your own home, or on the go.