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Monte-Carlo is the area of Monaco where the real money is flung about, and its famous casino ( www.casino-monte-carlo.com ; bus #1 or #2) demands to be seen. Entrance is restricted to over-21s and you may have to show your passport; dress code is rigid, with shorts and T-shirts frowned upon, and skirts, jackets and ties more or less obligatory for the more interesting sections. Bags and large coats are checked at the door. Day-trippers and gambling dilettantes usually don't enter the casino proper, but head for the small room of one-armed bandits and poker machines (free) by the main entrance. Without further commitment you can also wander around the impressive entry hall, use the luxurious toilets and check out the small theatre (containing temporary exhibitions). The first gambling hall of the inner sanctum is the Salons Europeens (open from noon; 50F/?7.63), where further slot machines surround the American roulette, craps and blackjack tables, the managers are Vegas-trained, the lights low and the air oppressively smoky. Above this slice of Nevada, however, the decor is fin-de-siecle Rococo extravagance, while the ceilings in the adjoining Pink Salon Bar are adorned with female nudes smoking cigarettes. The heart of the place is the Salons Prives (from 3pm), through the Salles Touzet. To get in, you have to look like a gambler, not a tourist (no cameras), and dispense with 100F/?15.25 at the door. Much larger and more richly decorated than the European Rooms, its early-afternoon or out-of-season atmosphere is that of a cathedral. No clinking coins, just sliding chips and softly spoken croupiers. Elderly gamblers pace silently, fingering hefty banknotes (the maximum unnegotiated stake here is 500,000F/?76,000), closed-circuit TV cameras above the chandeliers watch the gamblers watching the tables, and no one drinks. On midsummer evenings the place is packed out and the vice loses its sacred and exclusive touch. Adjoining the casino is the gaudy opera house , and around the palm-tree-lined place du Casino are more casinos plus the city's palace-hotels and grands cafes . The American Bar of the Hotel de Paris is, according to its publicity, the place where "the world's most elite society" meets. As long as you dress up and are prepared to be challenged if you haven't ordered a 200F/?30.50 drink, you can entertain yourself free of charge against the background of Belle Epoque decadence by watching humans whose bank accounts are possibly the most interesting thing about them.
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