The last fact, the one that put Brazilian casinos underground, banning them, was the decree of the then President of the Republic, Eurico Gaspar Dutra, in the distant year of 1946.
Legend has it that Gaspar Dutra would have been influenced by his wife who was completely against gambling, even if 888casino doesn’t confirm it. Seventy-five years have gone by and casinos have never been legal again in Brazil.
Before that, however, casinos lived days of glory, mainly on the Rio/São Paulo axis, where the most luxurious gaming and entertainment venues shone. Among them, perhaps the most famous was the Cassino da Urca, in Rio de Janeiro.
Installed in a 1922 building, which initially housed the Hotel Balneário, the Cassino da Urca operated between 1933 and 1946, in other words, a worldwide delicate period immersed in the Second World War (1939-1945).
Renowned artists performed there, including Grande Othello, Dick Farney, Dalva de Oliveira, Ary Barroso, Josephine Baker and the sisters Carmen and Aurora Miranda. Carmem, the most Brazilian Portuguese that is known, was a recurrent presence in Urca.
With the ban on gambling and the consequent closing of the casino, the building was unoccupied for many years, only in 1954 was it purchased by Diários Associados, and later adapted to house the studios of the extinct TV Tupi.
With the end of TV Tupi’s activities in 1980, the building was once again abandoned. Restored by the Instituto Europeo di Design, it has been its Brazilian headquarters since 2013.
The great casinos in São Paulo
On the former Ladeira São João, in the center of São Paulo, between 1901 and 1914, the Casino Paulista operated. Frequented, mainly by the local middle class, during the period it was in operation, it diffused many artists of the time.
Shows and plastic arts exhibitions were common. International performances of French Can-Can were frequent, which at that time was at its peak. In 1914, the building suffered a major fire that also affected the Bijou Café and Bijou Theatre, and the three buildings had, unfortunately, to be demolished.
The São Paulo coast was home to famous casinos, including the Casino de Monte Serrat, the Casino do Recreio Miramar, both in the city of Santos, and the Casino Grande Hotel La Plage, in Guarujá.
Monte Serrat Casino
Monte Serrat Casino opened in 1927 amidst a lot of pomp and glamour. The place was frequented by the cream of the São Paulo society until 1946.
A very curious fact concerns the immense access staircase, four hundred and two steps that few dared to overcome, giving preference to the cable car that even today goes up and down right next to it.
For the privileged few who preferred or prefer the staircase, fourteen niches along the way up reproduce scenes from the Via Sacra. Among the stars who frequented Monte Serrat, Francisco Alves, Sílvio Caldas and Carmen Miranda stand out.
Recreio Miramar Casino
The Casino do Recreio Miramar was inaugurated on January 12, 1896, located on Avenida Conselheiro Nébias, on Boqueirão beach, where it operated until 1940. The Miramar went down in history as the “Golden Palace”, given the colors of its façade.
In fact, the building housed a complex consisting of a ballroom, which for years held the best Carnival balls in the Santos region, hotel, cinema – the first cinema exhibition in the city of Santos, took place at Miramar, in 1897, a theater outdoors and an orchid house.
Casino Grande Hotel La Plage
The Casino Grande Hotel La Plage, Pitangueiras beach in Guarujá, has more history than any Brazilian casino, and it’s not really linked to games or the entertainment provided by the shows, but to a certain curse that seems to hang there.
In 1911, the American millionaire, Percival Farquhar, buys an old hotel, has it demolished and hires none other than Ramos de Azevedo to build the new complex.
In 1913, the first of the abnormal events, the former president of the Republic, Campos Salles, died suddenly, victim of a pulmonary embolism, in room number 44 at La Plage. Fifteen years later, 1928, Ramos de Azevedo himself would die in the same room, in a mysterious way.
In 1932, the great Brazilian aeronaut and inventor, Alberto Santos Dumont, would hang himself in the fateful room 44. Many claim that, in fact, there was a murder due to homophobia.
Copacabana Palace Casino in Rio de Janeiro
Opened in 1923, with resounding success, the Copacabana Palace Casino faces its first difficulties in 1924, when the government of Arthur Bernardes tries to revoke its operating license.
This legal battle takes on epic contours that last practically 10 years, when the owner of the complex, Otávio Guinle, finally wins the battle. The hotel and its casino were essential for consolidating the fame of the Copacabana neighborhood in the following decades.
