Before the casino: “Sin City” years
In the 1930s and 1940s, Montréal had a reputation across North America as an open city. While Prohibition dried up much of the United States, the city's nightclubs, jazz bars and illegal gaming houses ran with little interference. Card rooms, betting shops and so-called barbottes (dice houses) operated in the downtown core, often with the tacit tolerance of local officials.
That began to change in 1950, when lawyer Pacifique “Pax” Plante and a young Jean Drapeau pushed for a public inquiry into police corruption and organized vice. The resulting Caron Commission reported in 1954, and Drapeau rode the anti-corruption wave to become mayor of Montréal the same year. Gambling went further underground, and for almost four decades there was no legal casino in the city.
Changing the law
Canada's Criminal Code had banned most forms of gambling since 1892. The first major shift came in 1969, when Parliament amended the Code to allow federal and provincial governments to run lotteries. Québec moved quickly, creating Loto-Québec that same year.
A second change in 1985 gave the provinces exclusive control over gambling, including computer-based games and slot machines. That opened the door for provincially owned casinos, and Loto-Québec began planning a flagship venue in Montréal.
An Expo 67 landmark
The site chosen was already famous. For Expo 67, the world's fair that marked Canada's centennial, France built a striking pavilion on Île Notre-Dame, designed by architect Jean Faugeron with a lattice of aluminium ribs that still defines the building. Next door stood the Québec Pavilion, a glass box that seemed to change colour with the light.
After the fair closed, the pavilions were used for exhibitions and events, but the French Pavilion was increasingly underused. Converting it into a casino kept one of Expo's best-known buildings alive and put the new venue minutes from downtown on what is now Parc Jean-Drapeau.
Opening night, 1993
The Casino de Montréal opened on October 9, 1993, operated by Loto-Québec through its casino subsidiary. Demand exceeded expectations, with long queues in the first months, and within a few years the casino expanded into the neighbouring Québec Pavilion, linking the two Expo buildings.
Montréal's opening was the start of a province-wide network. The Casino de Charlevoix followed in 1994, and the Casino du Lac-Leamy in Gatineau in 1996, both also run by Loto-Québec.
Growth and renovation
Through the 1990s and 2000s the casino grew into one of the largest gaming venues in Canada, with thousands of slot machines, a large floor of table games, restaurants and a cabaret-style entertainment space. Between 2009 and 2013 Loto-Québec carried out a major modernization, reworking the interiors and circulation while keeping the Expo-era architecture that makes the building recognizable from across the river.
The casino today
Today the Casino de Montréal is as much a tourist landmark as a gaming venue. It is open around the clock, requires visitors to be 18 or older (the legal age in Québec), and includes restaurants, bars and live entertainment. Loto-Québec also operates a provincial online casino, which lets Québec residents play many of the same games from home.
For a city that once spent years trying to shut gambling down, the story has come full circle: gaming is now legal, regulated and run by the province, in a building that celebrates one of Montréal's proudest moments.