赌场一词从何而来？

　　在咖啡室里，你有没有想过，为什么赌场被称为赌场呢？我们不知道这一点。

　　大多数赌场游戏的名字的起源是相当明显。例如轮盘赌，它的名字是从车轮而来。轮盘在法国意味着“小轮”。21点当然来自卡的名称。

　　但是，有关赌场这个词呢？我们经常使用的话，你一般不会去想它。

　　好了，就像轮盘赌“roulle”是dimunitive，赌场是来源于意大利的“房子”一词：CASA。一个赌场，就是一个“小房子”，那么，它或者是乡间别墅？

　　意大利国家内部有很多赌场的交汇点。意大利人通常被认为是一个性格奔放的外向的民族。他们喜欢和朋友一起跳舞，听音乐和赌博。

　　由于第一家赌场出现在欧洲的在威尼斯（一个大贸易港口，有很多冒险者），“赌场”一词就是从那里蔓延到世界各地。

　　意大利的赌博市场仍然是一个非常繁忙的地方。根据意大利赌博的市场预计，网上赌博在2010年将达到约37亿美元至610亿美元。所以说，“小房子”似乎并不适用于今天的情况。

　　译文：

　　Where does the word Casino come from?

　　Have you ever wondered why casinos are called casinos? Well we were wondering exactly that today, in the office over a coffee.

　　The origin of most casino games? names are fairly obvious. Roulette- for example, takes its name from the wheel: roulette means “small wheel” in French. And blackjack comes from the name of the cards of course.

　　But what about casino? It?s one of those words we use so often, that you generally don?t think about it.

　　Well, just as roulette is a dimunitive of “roulle”， casino is from the Italian word for house: casa. A casino, is a “little house” then, or country house. （Incidently, if the Spanish had been the ones to export casinos worldwide, we?d be all talkiing about casitas I suppose）。

　　The Italian country house or casino was a meeting point, Italians being the extroverted lot they are, and a place to hang out with your friends, dance, listen to music and gamble. The gambling connotation stuck somewhere along the years, and casino took on the meaning worldwide of a place to gamble.

　　Given that the first casino in Europe was in Venice （a big trading port with lots of risk takers）， the word spread from there if you like.

　　And the Italian Gambling Market is still a pretty busy place. Italy’s gambling market is expected to grow to € 61 billion with online gambling reaching around € 3.7 billion by 2010. So the term “little house” doesn?t seem to apply to the situation today.