Canada isn’t widely known as a top destination for casino lovers. We’ve got some great venues here, no question, but when it comes to luxury, that’s the kind of thing they do elsewhere. While our hard-earned Canadian tax dollars are spent on boring things like infrastructure and health care, private funds are fuelling a global boom in casino opulence.
It’s easy to see why. As more of us shun international travel and play online at Bodog Casino, operators at live venues are pivoting toward VIP customers – who are absolutely rolling in cash right now. For these customers, it’s about more than the games themselves; they want the full meal deal, from high-end accommodations to fancy limousines and everything in between.
We all want these things, of course. Even if casino betting is your primary concern, it’s still possible for both VIPs and regular folk to step into any of the following venues and enjoy a taste of the good life. With that in mind, Bodog is pleased to present our top five list of the world’s most luxurious establishments, starting at the top with a place that many Canadians have already visited.
- Bellagio, Las Vegas, USA
It’s hard to imagine now, but when the Bellagio first opened on the Las Vegas Strip in 1998, it was a failure. Steve Wynn spent six years and a then-record US$1.6 billion creating this luxury resort, then left in May 2000 when revenues proved disappointing.
Business started picking up almost immediately after Wynn’s company, Mirage Resorts, was swallowed up by MGM Grand, Inc. As MGM Mirage, then MGM Resorts, they set the bar for how a luxury casino should be run – and they still operate the venue today, after selling it to Blackstone Inc. six years ago for a healthy $4.25 billion.
The Bellagio includes two hotel towers with a total of 3,933 rooms, renovated multiple times to keep everything as swank as possible. The Italianate decor is suitably impressive, the customer service is peerless, and the views of the Strip are absolutely stunning. High-end shopping (Armani, Gucci, the usual suspects) is available on Via Bellagio. If that’s too pricey for you, the world-famous Fountains of Bellagio are free for everyone to enjoy.
- The Venetian Macao, China
Wynn was largely responsible for the Las Vegas mega-resort boom of the 1990s – and for the Italianate theme, after initially planning a French-style resort where the Bellagio stands today. Sheldon Adelson went Italian when he launched the Venetian Las Vegas in 1999, and their sister property in Macau (aka the Macao Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China) offers more of the same, only larger. Not only is this the world’s second-largest casino, it also ranks No. 12 at press time for any building type with 908,000 square metres of floor space.
It’s a good thing they have all that space. Despite the stunning views of the Cotai Strip, the air quality isn’t quite as good in this part of the world. Recent improvements have helped, especially at the casino itself, which is divided into four separate gaming areas; premium guests may prefer playing at the Paiza Club, which you’ll find in the attached hotel.
Macau is the only place in China where gambling is officially legal, making this the world’s leading destination as of 2007, when Macau pushed the Las Vegas Strip into second place in terms of gaming revenue. “Junket agents” recruit high-rollers to visit the Venetian, giving them lines of credit and access to even more exclusive perks. If you’re looking for the highest-stakes poker games, look no further than the Poker King Club, where Phil Ivey reportedly raked in a single pot of $12 million back in 2014.
- Marina Bay Sands, Singapore
Adelson and his people at Las Vegas Sands upped the ante in 2010 when they opened their Marina Bay location, setting a new record for a standalone casino property at $6.9 billion. Two towers weren’t enough; this stunning resort has three, connected by the SkyPark Observation Deck – home to the world’s largest rooftop infinity pool.
For a mere $6,000 a night, VIPs will be picked up at the airport by their personal chauffeur, then fast-tracked through check-in and escorted to their VIP suite, where their personal butler will wait on them hand-and-foot. Priority reservations are available at Marina Bay Sands for their headline entertainment and Michelin-starred restaurants; if you’re on a budget, Spago Dining Room (a Wolfgang Puck joint) is right there in the SkyPark at the top of Tower 2, giving you access to the poolside terrace while you skip the breakfast buffet and enjoy the entirely reasonable $65 3-course lunch.
For an extra treat, your attendants will whisk you away from the casino property and give you a proper tour of Singapore itself. As with China, this is a one-party state that doesn’t tolerate any shenanigans from its tourists, but it’s generally much safer for Canadians to travel here given the current geopolitical climate. Just leave your spray paint at home.
- Monte Carlo Casino, Monaco
There’s still something to be said for old-school casino opulence. Monte Carlo was the brainchild of Princess Caroline, the regent de facto of Monaco from 1841-1856; the ruling House of Grimaldi needed to raise some funds, and after some early growing pains and a series of re-designs, they finally got their Beaux-Arts style casino up to snuff by 1879.
If you’re a James Bond fan, like many of our players here at Bodog Casino, you’ll be familiar with Monte Carlo. First mentioned as a Bond hangout in Ian Fleming’s 1955 novel Moonraker, Monte Carlo made notable appearances in the films Never Say Never Again (1983) and GoldenEye (1995). You may have also seen it in Iron Man 2 (2010), where the titular character is attacked at the Monaco Grand Prix, the iconic Formula One race that snakes its way through Casino Square.
Monte Carlo has been synonymous with casino gambling from the get-go, but there’s much more to this storied venue than baccarat and Belle Époque elegance. According to the 2025 Global Wealth Report, Monaco is the most expensive city in the world at $38,800 per square metre, well ahead of second-place New York at $27,500. Why so costly? Over 40% of Monaco’s 38,000 residents are millionaires, drawn here largely because they don’t have to pay income tax while they enjoy all of these luxuries.
- The Ritz London, England
Finally, we have arguably the most prestigious location on our list – Irving Berlin helped make the slang phrase “Puttin’ on the Ritz” famous in his 1927 song, which later became a Top 10 hit on the Canadian charts for Taco in 1982. But it was Cesar Ritz, the Swiss hotelier, who first gave us this incredible hotel casino in 1906. David and Frederick Barclay bought it in 1995 and spruced it up; the Ritz is now owned by Qatari investor Abdulhadi Mana Al-Hajri.
Best described as “Franco-American” on the outside, the interior was designed in the Louis XVI style, at the intersection of the Baroque and French Neoclassic movements. You get many of the intricate ornamental details from the Baroque style, but with cleaner lines and columns that hearken back to Greco-Roman times – especially in the Palm Court, where you can enjoy High Tea at the Ritz and scarf down scones with clotted cream while sitting in your plush velvet chair.
From a gambling perspective, we’ve unfortunately had to knock the Ritz down a peg or two on our list. The casino space inside the Ritz Hotel has seen more than its share of ups and downs over the past 100 years; the Ritz Club (opened 1998) enjoyed the most recent wave of success, bringing in celebrities from Al Pacino to President Bill Clinton, but COVID-19 and a larger decrease in foreign tourism closed the venue once more in 2020.
Enter Hard Rock International. They purchased the casino license from the Ritz Hotel in early 2021 – but not the space itself inside the hotel basement. The plan was to open a new casino elsewhere in the city, but those plans have yet to come to fruition at this time. There’s plenty of gambling to be had nearby at Aspers Casino and the Aspinall’s, but there’s only one Ritz Hotel, so if you’re going to make a trip of it, do it right and spend some quality time here before you hit the tables.
And with that, we’ve completed our list of the top five most luxurious destinations for gamblers. Is there anywhere we’ve missed that you think deserves a spot, maybe the vacant one at the Ritz? Let us know, and keep checking in with us at Bodog for the latest and greatest online casino games on our virtual floor.