Hivernage Casino
Morocco's first casino opened here in 1952, and the building still carries that mid-century seriousness — a preserved facade set inside nine hectares of gardens that belong to the Es Saadi complex on Rue Ibrahim el Mazini. The renovation in 2003 tidied things up without erasing the bones.
The floor runs 92 slot machines alongside English roulette and blackjack tables at stakes that range from the cautious to the committed. Poker tournaments — WSOP Circuit, World Poker Tour National, Winamax Sismix — pull serious players from across the region. After or instead of the tables, Theatro, the nightclub sharing the same complex, keeps going until the early hours.
💛 What travellers fall for
People who come back tend to time it around a poker tournament — the Marrakech Poker Open in particular draws a different crowd than the regular floor. They also mention eating at the casino restaurant before gaming rather than after: the kitchen closes earlier than the tables, and the Moroccan-international menu is a better decision on an empty stomach.
How Hivernage Casino came to be
Hivernage as a district predates the casino by decades. Urban planner Henri Prost laid out its grid around 1920, designing a leafy colonial-era quarter between the medina ramparts and the Menara gardens — a deliberate counterpoint to the medina's density.
The Casino de Marrakech arrived in 1952, the first of its kind in Morocco, and anchored the neighbourhood's identity as the city's entertainment quarter. Fully renovated in 2003, it retained its original facade while updating the gaming floor, and has remained the reference point for the Hivernage night economy ever since.
Who and what shaped it
People who shaped it
Landmark buildings
Plan your visit
On the map
When to go
Marrakech winters are mild in daylight but genuinely cold after dark — worth remembering if you're walking between venues. Spring and early autumn are the most comfortable seasons to be out late.
Right now
Background & history adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA) · specs from Wikidata (CC0) · weather from Open-Meteo · map data © OpenStreetMap contributors · photos from Wikimedia Commons / Unsplash with per-image credit. No third-party reviews or social posts reproduced.