Casino de la Vallée

The Casino de la Vallée is the building that turned a thermal town into a resort capital. Authorised in 1946 and inaugurated in the Grand Hotel Billia in April 1947, it remains the Aosta Valley's only casino.

Why it matters

Saint-Vincent's gamble on gaming is nearly a century old: a roulette table operated here from 1921 until Italy entered the war, and as soon as the conflict ended, the autonomous region's authorities legislated to bring it back — Federico Chabod's decree of April 1946 and the region's vote of May 1946 opened the way for the inauguration of 29 April 1947. The casino's fortune made and sustained the town's hotel, thermal and conference economy, and its resort project — casino, Grand Hotel Billia, Parc Hotel Billia and a wellness centre linked together — is a purpose-built leisure district. For the cultural history of Alpine tourism, few single buildings carry this much weight.

What to notice

The casino’s architecture records its development from the 1947 installation in the Belle Époque rooms of the Grand Hotel Billia through successive modernisations. The hotel, park and casino form a connected resort ensemble.

Context and history

Gaming in Saint-Vincent began with a roulette permit obtained in 1921 by the town's mayor, Élie Page, and ran until 1940, when Italy's entry into the war closed it. The post-war restart was one of the young autonomous region's first economic acts: the decree authorising the casino was issued on 3 April 1946 by Federico Chabod, the Conseil de la Vallée approved it on 13 May 1946, and the casino opened on 29 April 1947 in the rooms of the Grand Hotel Billia. The first customers, an anecdote the casino's own history records, were a textile industrialist from Biella, a lawyer from Casale Monferrato and a merchant from Turin. From those halls the business expanded into the present resort: a casino of 3,500 square metres on two floors — described by its operator as among the largest in Europe — tied to the Grand Hotel Billia, the Parc Hotel Billia and a spa. The 1946 licence date and the 1947 inauguration are distinct moments; both matter to the building's story.