Contents
There are city breaks, and then there are city breaks with a bit of edge. Whether you’re hopping on the ferry to the mainland for a long weekend or treating yourself to a few nights somewhere a little more dramatic, adding a casino evening to your itinerary is one of those experiences that always makes the trip feel more memorable. Turns out, some European cities are considerably better set up for it than others.
Research from Gambling.com, home of the best online casinos, ranked the top casino destination in each of Europe’s ten most visited cities using Google Reviews scores. The results make for a genuinely useful city break planning tool, and the findings might nudge a few destinations higher up your list.
London: The Domestic Option That Still Delivers
For anyone based in Northern Ireland, London is the obvious first port of call for a UK staycation with a bit of glamour. It’s an easy flight from Belfast City or Belfast International, and the city more than delivers on the casino front. The Grosvenor Casino at St Giles, sitting right in the heart of London’s theatreland, topped the entire European ranking with a Google Reviews score of 4.8. The gaming floor covers American roulette, blackjack, three-card poker and more, and the location puts you within easy reach of the West End, Covent Garden, and everything else that makes a London weekend feel worth the fare.
It is the kind of place where you can spend an evening without the whole trip becoming about gambling. Pop in after a show, have a few rounds at the tables, and call it a night. That is the appeal of a well-placed city casino: it becomes part of the itinerary rather than the whole point.
Paris, Vienna and Beyond: Where to Eat, Explore and Try Your Luck
If you are ready to go a bit further afield, the research throws up some excellent options across the continent. Paris comes in second overall, with the Club Circus Paris scoring 4.5. It sits walkable from some of the city’s most famous sporting venues, has 31 tables for poker and dealer games, and comes with a restaurant and bar attached. Paris is always worth a trip in its own right, and this just adds another evening activity to the mix.
Vienna’s Casino Baden, which scored 4.4, is one of the largest and most culturally significant casinos in Europe, housed in a historically protected building. Vienna is frequently overlooked in favour of Prague or Budapest as a European city break destination, but it consistently punches well above its weight for food, architecture and atmosphere. The casino is actually located in Baden, a short train ride from the city centre, which makes for a nice half-day excursion in itself.
Madrid’s Casino Gran Vía Poker Room scored 4.2 and Amsterdam’s Holland Casino came in at 4.1. Both are worth knowing about if either city is already on your radar. Madrid in particular has seen a surge in popularity as a city break from the UK and Ireland in recent years, and the Casino Gran Vía sits in one of the most architecturally impressive stretches of the city.
The Lower End of the List
Not every city delivers on the casino front. Athens, Milan and Venice all sit at the bottom of the ranking, with scores between 3.8 and 3.9. That does not mean the cities themselves should be skipped, obviously, but if a casino experience is part of what you are after, these are not the strongest destinations for it. Venice’s Casinò Di Venezia is the lowest-rated at 3.8, which is perhaps surprising given the setting, though its age and relatively dated facilities may explain the gap between expectation and reality.
When the City Break Isn’t on the Cards
Not every weekend calls for a flight and a hotel. For those occasions when the budget is tighter or the calendar is fuller, it is worth knowing that much of the casino experience is available online. The same research team behind the European rankings also covers the UK’s online casino market in depth, so if you want to compare options without leaving the sofa, that is a reasonable starting point.
City breaks with a casino component work best when the casino is one stop among many rather than the entire reason for going. London for a staycation, Paris or Vienna for something a little more adventurous: both give you enough to fill a long weekend without the casino having to carry the whole trip.