Tips Clear News Portal Your Ultimate Guide to Clear Tips on Life, Tech, Health, and More We’ve already told you about the most beautiful abandoned places in France and in the world, but we never really asked ourselves the question of casinos (not supermarkets, gambling halls, huh). Well… Believe me, it’s worth it! There are some crazy abandoned buildings. Very eager to find the courage to go exploring!
1. Penthouse Adriatic Club, en ex-Yougoslavie
This casino was born in July 1972, on the Croatian island of Krk. When Yugoslavia opens its borders and admits new laws, gambling is no longer prohibited (but only for international visitors). Bob Guccione, founder of a porn magazine, then invested 45 million dollars to set up the building. Finally, the place went bankrupt after a few months of opening, in 1973. Bought by a local company, the resort welcomed visitors until 2001. And since then… Nothing.
2. Asbury Park Casino, New Jersey
It was one of the first casinos in the region! Built in 1929, it enjoyed long years of glory, until… The creation of Atlantic City, a direct competitor, in the 1980s. Abandoned, the building quickly closed its doors and was abandoned. Honestly, when you see the beauty of the thing… Well yeah, it kinda freaks you out.
3. Casino Di Consonno, in Italy
In Consonno, the casino is not the only abandoned building: in reality, the whole town has been deserted. Until the 1960s, Consonno was just a small farming village, a few kilometers from Milan. In 1962, Count Mario Bagno bought all the land, with the project of creating the “Italian Vegas”. The hamlet attracted crowds for a few years, and then… In 1976, a flood ravaged the road serving the town. End of the story. No one goes there anymore, and everything is left in the lurch. Sad.
4. Genting Casino, Torquay (UK)
Leap in time, welcome back (as they say in Torquay) to the 2020s! The Genting Casino was one of the collateral damage of Covid-19. On Youtube, a group of friends films its interior, and it’s quite impressive. Everything is still in place. Poker chips, file containing the names of cheaters, safes… As if everything was fine and that BOOM, overnight, a pandemic was screwing up the life plans of thousands of people. Oh…wait.
5. Catfish Bend Casino, Iowa
Catfish Bend Casino opened in 1994 on the Mississippi River between Illinois and Iowa. It was with a change in laws in 2007, no longer forcing casinos in Iowa to float on waterways, that the owners of the place decided to found a larger land establishment. Result: the boat is abandoned on the river.
6. This other impressive casino boat, in a secret location
Inevitably, the story above aroused my curiosity, I got lost on Youtube to arrive on this video completely phew. To respect the place and prevent it from being distorted, the YouTubers in question have kept its location secret (and therefore inevitably, its history). The only elements collected in the legend: this boat-casino was founded in the 1980s. The project was to bring visitors to the sea, in legal waters for gambling. In operation until 2008, it has since been docked and abandoned.
7. Jubilation Casino, Mississippi
Come on, never 2 without 3, we’re going on a new little boat-casino (promised, it’s the last of this top)! If this one is less phew at first sight, it does not prevent that its history remains rather crazy. First, we talked about the “SS Nantucket”, a boat carrying passengers from New Bedford to Nantucket Island, from 1957. Second life: it was renamed “SS Naushon”, and will be the very last steamship in regular service on the east coast of the USA, before returning to the Mississippi. Finally, and because never 2 without 3 (yes, I’m going to repeat it a third time, because you know… Never 2 without 3!), the boat was reincarnated one last time in the 1990s. In December 1993, it opened as “Cotton Club Riverboat Casino”, then moved to Lakeshore as “Jubilation Casino”. Unfortunately, it did not meet with the expected success, and closed definitively shortly afterwards, in October 1995. Today, it is moored in the waters of Mhoon Landing. Inside, everything is trashed. Slot machines and objects of all kinds are rotting on the ground. I don’t know what you think of it, but it deserved a nicer final resting place!
8. The Overlook Hotel Casino, Germany
Ok, there I struggled to find information, and I was on the verge of swinging the photo at you, saying “look how pretty it is and don’t ask questions”! Luckily for you, photographer Frit Vrielink, shared a album enough phew on the place, accompanied by some small information! This hotel is said to have opened on June 1, 1874, somewhere in Germany. Equipped with 5 floors, 350 rooms (still!), a spa and of course, a casino, it has welcomed vacationers for several decades. It would have been abandoned at the end of the 1990s. The reason? Mystery.
9. Casino de Constanta, in Romania
Constanta is a Romanian city, above the shores of the Black Sea. In the early 1900s, its casino was one of the most popular buildings of its kind. It attracts visitors from all over the world. 1914: the First World War breaks out, and the place is transformed into a hospital. Bombed during the conflict, it was restored at the end of the war. World War II: it becomes a hotel for German troops, before being damaged again by a projectile. In the 1950s, the work was carried out by force by political prisoners. When Romania came under the communist regime, games of chance were banned and the place was reinvested in the “Maison de la Culture” (a propagandist museum, to the glory of communism). Finally, the building closed in 1990, due to excessive costs and charges. In 2018, it joined Europa Nostra’s list of Europe’s most endangered heritage sites. Since then, restoration and consolidation work has begun!
10. Bokor Palace Hotel and Casino, Cambodia
The Bokor Palace Hotel and Casino opened its doors in 1962, on an altitude resort that had existed since 1921. A sadly famous resort, since its construction, at 1000 meters above sea level, cost the lives of 900 people. Yeah, that kind of sucks the vibe. And you are not at the end of your troubles: this “Hotel & Casino” has, in fact, never really been a casino! The confusion comes from the opening of a game room in the Hotel Sangkum. So… Yes, we’re a little off topic… But the images are worth seeing, aren’t they? The place is so crazy that the ruins of Bokor served as the setting for the final scene of the movie City of Ghosts (2002) as well as most of the action of the South Korean movie R-Point (2004). In 2012, the building was renovated and reopened as Thansur Bokor Highland Resort.