Monte-Carlo Casino Hotels: Entry Rules, Dress Code and Prices

Who compiled this

In March 2017 I flew to Nice for a friend's fortieth, took the bus down to Monaco, and was stopped at the door of the Casino de Monte-Carlo at nine in the evening for wearing trainers. I had read three travel pieces on the flight. Not one of them mentioned that the dress code is a rule rather than a suggestion, or that there is a fee to walk in at all.

So I started keeping a file. It is now this: a record of the entry conditions at Monte-Carlo's best-known addresses, written down plainly and checked against what the operator publishes rather than what travel blogs repeat. I am Iris Fenwick, and I work on it from Bristol, mostly on Sunday afternoons.

The dossier exists because the interesting thing about Monte-Carlo is not that it is expensive. Everyone knows that. The interesting thing is that it is conditional: there is a door, there is a price on it, there is a list of what you may not wear through it, and there is a category of person who cannot pass it at any price.

The honest limit of this dossier: I have never spent a night in any of these hotels, and on a Bristol freelance income I am not going to. I can price the door, walk the public rooms, read the statute and quote the operator. I cannot tell you what the pillows are like in a Diamond Suite, so I do not.

The dress code is not folklore. It is written down, it is enforced at the door, and it is the cheapest mistake you can avoid.

The rules of entry

What it actually takes to get through the door.

These are the operator's conditions as Monte-Carlo SBM publishes them, not our interpretation. Where SBM's own pages contradict each other, we say so rather than pick the tidier number.

Visitors in ordinary summer clothes standing under the marble colonnade and gilded upper gallery of the Casino de Monte-Carlo atrium — The atrium, August 2017. Daytime visitors in shorts and t-shirts, which is exactly what the room permits before 2pm and refuses after 7pm. The rule is not about the room. It is about the hour. Photo: Joseolgon, CC BY-SA 4.0.

01

Age

Monaco admits adults at 18, not 21. SBM words it precisely: you must be at least one day older than your eighteenth birthday. Morning sightseeing visits are open to all ages; the gaming rooms from 2pm are not.

02

Identity

A passport or ID card, the original document. This is not a formality at the desk; it is how the residency rule below is applied.

03

The door price

The Casino de Monte-Carlo charges 20 euros to enter the gaming rooms from 2pm, and includes 10 euros of credit. Read the small print: that credit works in the slot machines, at the bar, or in Le Salon Rose. It does not work at the tables. The morning tour is a separate 20 euros, 10am to 1pm, last entry 12.15pm; 15 euros for ages 13 to 17, free for 6 to 12.

04

Dress

SBM's wording, verbatim: shorts (including bermuda shorts), jeans with rips or other cut-outs, sportswear, trainers, men's flipflops and sandals, vest tops and beachwear are not permitted. T-shirts and sweatshirts are not permitted after 7pm. There is no jacket-and-tie requirement in that text, which surprises people who expect one.Trainers are the line that catches British visitors, because trainers are what British visitors travel in. Nine in the evening, March 2017. It caught me.

05

The residency rule

Monaco bars a category of person from its own casinos entirely. The legal basis is Loi n° 1.103 of 12 June 1987, and it is built around Monegasque nationals together with certain state and communal officials. SBM's own entry page, however, refuses "Monaco residents", which is a wider and different category: a British person living in Monaco is a resident but not a national. We could not retrieve the statute text to reconcile the two, so we report the gap rather than paper over it. See the margin notes below.

How we score access

The files · five addresses

Five doors, one operator, five different answers.

File 01 · Gaming rooms Opened 1856 · present building 1865

Casino de Monte-Carlo

Operator: Monte-Carlo SBM · Place du Casino, Monaco

The building everyone credits to Charles Garnier, and the credit is mostly wrong. The original casino was built to designs by Gobineau de la Bretonnerie between 1858 and 1863; the present structure dates from 1865. Garnier's contribution came later and was narrower than the legend: the Salle Garnier, the little opera house, in 1878 to 1879, and the Trente-et-Quarante gaming room in 1880 to 1881. Two rooms, not a building. We labour the point because every second guidebook hands him the whole facade.

The operator is Monte-Carlo SBM, founded in 1863 under Prince Charles III and listed today on Euronext Paris. The Monegasque state is its majority shareholder. We have seen figures between roughly 60 and 64 per cent quoted, including on SBM's own pages, which are out of date; we are not going to state a precise number we cannot stand behind.

For a visitor the practical shape of the day is this: mornings are for looking, afternoons are for playing, and they are priced separately. Turn up at 10am and you are a tourist in an empty room with a camera. Turn up at 9pm and you are subject to every line of the dress code.

4/10

Access · paid door, enforced dress, heavy crowds, a class of person refused outright

The honest caveatThe forecourt is one of the most photographed spots on the coast and it feels like it. If you want the Belle Epoque hush the postcards promise, this is the address least likely to give it to you.

Read the full file

The seaward side of the Casino de Monte-Carlo, with the domed Salle Garnier opera wing at the right and its separate artists' entrance at street level — The seaward side. The domed wing on the right is the Salle Garnier, signposted to its own artists' entrance: Garnier's actual contribution, bolted onto somebody else's building. Photo: Diego Delso, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Exhibit · what Garnier built, and what he did not

Archival photograph of the Salle Garnier auditorium at the Monte Carlo Casino, tiers of boxes facing a decorated proscenium, taken 1878 to 1879 — The Salle Garnier auditorium, photographed 1878-79, the year it was finished. This room, and the Trente-et-Quarante gaming room of 1880-81, are the whole of Garnier's work here. Photo: Jean Gilletta, public domain.

Photochrom print of the Casino de Monte-Carlo entrance atrium in the 1890s, showing the balustraded upper gallery, painted lunette and the doors leading off the hall — The entrance atrium in the 1890s, by the earlier architect's plan. Everyone who is admitted crosses this hall first, and the doors around it are where the rules stop being theory. Photochrom Print Collection, public domain.

File 02 · Hotel Opened 1864 · 206 rooms and suites

Hôtel de Paris Monte-Carlo

Operator: Monte-Carlo SBM · Place du Casino, Monaco

Older than the casino building it faces, and the reason the square works at all: SBM's founding logic was that a casino needs somewhere for its visitors to sleep. 206 rooms and suites today, on SBM's own count.

It holds two Michelin stars' worth of dining and then some. Le Louis XV - Alain Ducasse carries three stars; Le Grill carries one. Both were current in the MICHELIN Guide France 2026 selection when we checked on 17 July 2026, and the Michelin guide does cover Monaco, which is why we are willing to print stars here and would not be in Las Vegas.

The Le Louis XV Alain Ducasse awning on the Hotel de Paris, set beneath arched windows and two carved caryatid figures in the Belle Epoque stonework — The three-star room, from the pavement, August 2016. The caryatids above the awning are the Belle Epoque doing what it does: the ornament is on the outside, where it costs you nothing to look at it. Photo: Jordiferrer, CC BY-SA 4.0.

The access story is the surprise. The lobby costs nothing. There is no door fee, no ticket, no queue at the desk for someone walking in to look at the room and have a drink at the bar. The building that reads as the most exclusive on the square is, at the threshold, the more open of the two.

7/10

Access · free lobby, smart dress expected but unpoliced, tables need booking

The honest caveatFree to enter is not the same as free. A table at Le Louis XV is a serious sum booked well ahead, and walking the lobby in shorts to say you have been inside is a thin sort of visit.

The Hotel de Paris Monte-Carlo across the fountain on Place du Casino, its slate domes and awnings above the terrace, with tourists in shorts and t-shirts standing on the pavement outside — From the fountain on Place du Casino. Note the people on the pavement: shorts, t-shirts, cameras. They can all walk into this lobby, and nothing across the square would let them in dressed like that. Photo: Arnaud 25, CC BY-SA 4.0.

File 03 · Hotel Opened circa 1900

Hôtel Hermitage Monte-Carlo

Operator: Monte-Carlo SBM · Square Beaumarchais, Monaco

The quiet one, a short walk off the square, and the file where we have to admit how much we do not know. We could not confirm the room count from a source we trust. We could not confirm who designed it: two names circulate, Jean and Nicolas Marquet, and we could not settle which, or whether either is right. We could not confirm the role commonly attributed to Gustave Eiffel in the winter garden, a claim repeated everywhere and sourced nowhere we could reach.

What we can confirm is the dining. L'Abysse Monte-Carlo holds two stars and Pavyllon Monte-Carlo holds one, both under Yannick Alléno, both in the hotel, both current in the 2026 selection.

One correction while we are here, because it is the error we see most: Les Ambassadeurs by Christophe Cussac is not in the Hermitage. It is in the Hôtel Métropole, which is a different building under different ownership and is not part of SBM at all.

8/10

Access · free, calm, walk in, nobody refused at the door

The cream Belle Epoque frontage of the Hotel Hermitage with its name carved above the cornice, palms and wrought iron railings in front, and a tall modern residential tower standing directly behind it — The Hermitage, name still cut into the stone, with a later tower squarely behind it. Nobody stops you on this pavement. It is also the building we can tell you least about. Photo: Zairon, CC BY-SA 4.0.

The honest caveatThis file is thinner than we would like. Three basic facts about the building are unverified and we have left them unverified rather than borrow a number from a blog that borrowed it from another blog. If you know a primary source, the address is on the contact page.

File 04 · Hotel Opened 2005

Monte-Carlo Bay Hotel & Resort

Operator: Monte-Carlo SBM · Avenue Princesse Grace, Monaco

The modern one, out on the Larvotto side, and the only address in this dossier that does not read as nineteenth century. 2005, on reclaimed ground, with a sand-bottomed lagoon that is the thing people actually come for.

Blue Bay, under Marcel Ravin, holds two stars in the 2026 selection - a Caribbean-Mediterranean kitchen that is a long way from the Ducasse register up the hill, and better for it.

We list it as a hotel and we score it as one. We could not confirm whether a gaming room currently operates on the site, so we have not credited it with one. The room count we also could not confirm.

8/10

Access · free, relaxed dress, quiet; grounds and lagoon are for guests

The honest caveatIt scores well on access partly because it is the furthest from Place du Casino, which is precisely why it is empty. If you came to Monaco for the Belle Epoque, this is a twenty-minute walk in the wrong direction.

The Monte-Carlo Bay Hotel and Resort seen from inside its grounds, a large arcaded block rising above the sand-bottomed lagoon, with loungers, parasols and a tiled gazebo in front of it — The lagoon, photographed from inside the grounds. This is what people come here for, and it is the one thing in this file you cannot simply walk up to: the water is for guests. No gaming room in the frame, because there is none to photograph. Photo: otterboris, CC BY 3.0.

File 05 · Gaming rooms Renovation due to complete spring 2027

Casino Café de Paris

Operator: Monte-Carlo SBM · Place du Casino, Monaco

Across the square from the famous one, free at the door, and the most useful address in this dossier for anyone who simply wants to stand in a Monegasque gaming room without paying twenty euros for the privilege.

Two things are routinely got wrong about it, and we got one of them wrong ourselves before checking. First, 14 November 2023 is often given as the casino's reopening date. It is not: that date is the reopening of the Café de Paris brasserie after a nineteen-month renovation. The casino stayed open throughout. Second, the slot machine count. SBM's public page says 360 machines; SBM's own corporate site says nearly 400 in 2025. Those are the operator's own two numbers, and they do not agree, so we print both and pick neither.

A renovation is under way, due to complete in spring 2027, which will move any count again. Its cost is disputed too: figures of 70 million and 55 million euros both circulate and we could not resolve which is right.

7/10

Access · free entry, relaxed dress, walk in; 18+ and the residency rule still apply

The honest caveatFree at the door does not mean open to all: it is a Monegasque casino, so the same age check and the same residency rule apply as across the square. And with the works running to 2027, the room you walk into may not be the room in any photograph you have seen.

Read the full file

The entrance to the Cafe de Paris in Monte-Carlo, its glazed canopy and lettering above the doors — The entrance on Place du Casino. Photo: Benoît Prieur, CC0.

The admissions table

Who lets you in, at what age, for how much, dressed how.

Sorted by our access score, highest first. The bar is a single measure on a single scale: bordeaux marks the two addresses with a gaming floor you can walk into, grey marks the three that are hotels. Ties are ties; we do not break them artificially.

Entry conditions at five Monte-Carlo SBM addresses, as published by the operator. Checked 17 July 2026.
Address	Age	At the door	Dress	Who is refused	Access
Hôtel Hermitage	No door age	Free	Smart, not policed	AdmittedNobody at the door	8/10
Monte-Carlo Bay	No door age	Free	Resort casual	AdmittedLagoon and grounds: guests only	8/10
Casino Café de Paris	18+	Free	Relaxed	RefusedUnder 18; and see the residency rule	7/10
Hôtel de Paris	No door age	Free lobby	Smart, not policed	AdmittedNobody at the door	7/10
Casino de Monte-Carlo	18+ from 2pm	€20 (incl. €10 credit, not for tables)	Enforced; no t-shirts after 7pm	RefusedUnder 18; and see the residency rule	4/10

Gaming floor you can walk on to Hotel, no gaming floor One address in five charges at the door. It is the famous one.

Access is scored out of ten from five published conditions, two points each: door cost, dress code, whether you can walk in unbooked, crowding at peak, and whether any category of person is refused outright. It measures how realistically an ordinary visitor gets inside. It does not measure how nice it is in there. The full method is here.

The house pick

If you want to stand in a Monte-Carlo gaming room, go to the cheap one.

The Casino de Monte-Carlo is the photograph. The Casino Café de Paris, sixty seconds away across the same square, is the room you can actually walk into: nothing at the door, no jacket question, no ticket, no ten euros of credit you cannot spend at the tables because you were never going to the tables anyway.

You give up the Garnier rooms and the marble. You keep your twenty euros and your evening. For a first visit, on a normal income, from a Tuesday flight into Nice, we think that is the right trade, and we would rather say so plainly than pretend the expensive door is the only one.

The catch is in file 05: the works run to spring 2027, and SBM cannot tell you consistently how many machines are in there.

The full file on Café de Paris

The open terrace of the Cafe de Paris in Monte-Carlo, rattan chairs and marble tables occupied by people in everyday clothes, with the ornate rooflines of Place du Casino rising behind the awnings — The Cafe de Paris terrace, November 2021. No ticket, no desk, no dress rule, and Place du Casino rising directly behind the awnings. Ordinary clothes, ordinary Thursday, sixty seconds from the door that would have turned half these people away. Photo: Benoit Prieur, CC0.

Notes in the margin

Sun Casino is gone

It closed permanently on 14 March 2020 and never reopened. The space is now an event venue, Le Grand Salon. It still appears on itinerary lists as a working casino, which tells you how much of the travel web is copied rather than checked.

Ten stars, six restaurants

SBM claims ten Michelin stars across six restaurants and the arithmetic closes: Le Louis XV three, L'Abysse two, Blue Bay two, Le Grill one, Pavyllon one, and Elsa at Monte-Carlo Beach one, new for 2026. We mention it because a claim you can add up is worth more than a claim you cannot.

The loose thread · no photograph exists of a rule

Nationals, or residents?

Monaco bars a category of person from its own casinos, at any price, in any jacket. That is the hardest line in this dossier and the only one no ticket can cross. The legal basis is Loi n° 1.103 of 12 June 1987, and it is built around Monegasque nationals together with certain officials of the state and the commune.

SBM's own entry conditions, however, refuse "Monaco residents". Those are not the same set of people. Monaco's population is overwhelmingly foreign, so a rule about residents would exclude vastly more people than a rule about nationals, and would catch British expatriates who are not Monegasque at all.

We tried to retrieve the statute itself to see which wording is operative, and the government's legal site would not serve it to us. So we print the contradiction as we found it, marked, rather than quietly choose the version that reads better. If you can send us the operative text, the address is on the contact page. We would rather be corrected than tidy.

RefusedBasis unresolved · 17.07.2026

Questions we get

Four honest answers.

Can Monaco residents gamble in Monaco?

Not straightforwardly, and the honest answer is that we cannot give you a clean one. Monaco bars its own people from its casinos: that much is certain and the legal basis is Loi n° 1.103 of 12 June 1987, which is framed around Monegasque nationals and certain state and communal officials. But SBM's own entry page refuses "Monaco residents", a broader category that would include foreign nationals living there. We could not obtain the statute text to establish which wording actually governs at the door, and we are not going to invent the answer. If you live in Monaco and this matters to you, ask SBM directly and get it in writing.

Is there an entry fee, and what does the ten euros of credit actually buy?

The Casino de Monte-Carlo charges 20 euros for the gaming rooms from 2pm, including 10 euros of credit. The credit is usable in the slot machines, at the bar or in Le Salon Rose. It is not usable at the tables, which is the detail most write-ups omit and the one that matters if you came for the tables. The morning tour is a separate 20 euros. The Casino Café de Paris across the square charges nothing.

What can I wear?

SBM's published rule, word for word: no shorts including bermudas, no jeans with rips or cut-outs, no sportswear, no trainers, no men's flipflops or sandals, no vest tops, no beachwear. After 7pm, no t-shirts and no sweatshirts either. Note what is absent: there is no jacket-and-tie requirement in that text. Trainers are the one that catches British visitors, because trainers are what British visitors travel in. They caught me.

Do these resorts pay you, and can I book through you?

No and no. Monte-Carlo SBM has never paid us anything, has no say in what appears here, and as far as we know does not know we exist. We take no advertising from the venues we write about and we run no affiliate links: every link out of this dossier goes to an operator's own website and earns us nothing. We are not a booking agent and we have no rooms to sell. If you want to stay somewhere in this dossier, book with the hotel.

Follow the dossier

When a rule changes, we send one note.

Door prices move. The Café de Paris works run to 2027. If any of it changes, you get a short update and a browser notification, and nothing else. No offers, because we have nothing to sell you.

Monte-Carlo, and the rules that decide who gets in.

What it actually takes to get through the door.

Five doors, one operator, five different answers.

Casino de Monte-Carlo

Hôtel de Paris Monte-Carlo

Hôtel Hermitage Monte-Carlo

Monte-Carlo Bay Hotel & Resort

Casino Café de Paris

Who lets you in, at what age, for how much, dressed how.

If you want to stand in a Monte-Carlo gaming room, go to the cheap one.

Sun Casino is gone

Ten stars, six restaurants

Nationals, or residents?

Four honest answers.

When a rule changes, we send one note.