Open daily, the Casino Barrière de Montreux is an invitation to a world of entertainment. Those with luck on their side love the many games on offer, music lovers discover the secrets of Queen and foodies can treat themselves in one of the three restaurants or on the terrace with a view of Lake Geneva.

The prestigious Casino Barrière, situated on the shores of Lake Geneva, rolls out its red carpet in a luxurious setting with a panoramic view of the lake and the Alps. With an entertainment area of 10,000 m2, the Casino has 3 restaurants, 2 bars, 2 terraces, 24 gaming tables and 377 slot machines, shops and a fantastic swimming pool. It also has a poker room and jackpot. The Montreux Casino Barrière is the only casino in the French part of Switzerland to have a licence A, issued for big betting games with unlimited stakes and bets.

The history of this legendary venue is linked to the Montreux Jazz Festival. With admission, you get free entry to Queen’s old recording studio. Finally, the casino has three conference rooms which can accommodate up to 800 people.

Montreux Casino (Casino Barrière de Montreux) is a casino Located in Montreux, Switzerland, on the shoreline of Lake Geneva. It has served as the venue for the Montreux Jazz Festival and was rebuilt following a 1971 fire memorialized in the Deep Purple song "Smoke on the Water". It is a property of Groupe Lucien Barrière.

Montreux Casino was built in 1881 and had modifications made to it in 1903. Throughout the twentieth century, the site played host to many great symphony orchestras and well-known conductors. By the late 1960s, jazz, blues and rock artists began to perform there.

In 1967 the Casino became the venue for the Montreux Jazz Festival, which was the brainchild of music promoter Claude Nobs. The festival was held there annually and lasted for three days. The highlights of this era were Keith Jarrett, Jack DeJohnette, Bill Evans, Nina Simone, Jan Garbarek, and Ella Fitzgerald. Originally featuring almost exclusively jazz artists, in the 1970s the festival began broadening its scope, including blues, soul, and rock artists. Some notable rock acts which performed at Montreux Casino in these years include Led Zeppelin (although they never performed at the festival itself), Pink Floyd and Deep Purple.

1971 fire
On December 4, 1971, Montreux Casino burned down during a concert by The Mothers of Invention after a fan had set the venue on fire with a flare gun. A recording of the outbreak and fire announcement can be found on a Frank Zappa Bootleg album titled Swiss Cheese/Fire!

The song "Smoke on the Water" by English rock group Deep Purple is about the incident:

“We all came out to Montreux on the Lake Geneva shoreline / To make records with a mobile - We didn't have much time / Frank Zappa & the Mothers were at the best place around / But some stupid with a flare gun burned the place to the ground / Smoke on the water, a fire in the sky...”

Montreux Casino as seen on Lake Léman

Montreux Casino 2014 summer
The Casino was subsequently rebuilt, and during the interim the Montreux Jazz Festival was held in other auditoriums in Montreux, until it could return to the newly re-opened Casino in 1975. The Festival continued to be hosted there until 1993, when it moved to a larger Montreux Convention Centre located approximately one kilometre from the Casino. From 1995 through 2006, the Festival occupied both the Convention Centre and the Casino. Beginning with the 41st Festival in 2007, nightly performances of headliners were again moved mainly to the Convention Centre, although the Casino still hosts the odd one-off show.