Casino Baden-Baden

Casino Baden-Baden occupies the grand Kurhaus building at the heart of this famous spa town in Germany's Black Forest, and its two-century history places it among the most distinguished gaming establishments on earth. Marlene Dietrich famously declared it "the most beautiful casino in the world," and few visitors who experience its gilded Florentine Rooms and Winter Garden would disagree.

Opened in 1824 under French management (the French government had banned gambling at the time, driving its operators across the Rhine), the casino attracted the crowned heads and literary figures of 19th-century Europe including Queen Victoria, Napoleon III, Fyodor Dostoevsky, and Johannes Brahms — who composed much of his first symphony while living in Baden-Baden.

Today the casino offers roulette, blackjack, poker, and a selection of gaming machines across several elaborately decorated salons. Formal dress (jacket and tie for men) is required in the historic rooms on evenings and weekends, preserving the atmosphere of classical elegance that has defined the venue for two hundred years.