CASINO ROOMS

Casino Royale was first released on 13th April, 1953, in a United Kingdom hardcover edition by publishers Jonathan Cape. The first paperback edition of Casino Royale in the United States was re-titled by publisher American Popular Library in 1955 . Fleming's suggestions for a new title, The Double-O Agent and The Deadly Gamble, were disregarded in favour of You Asked For It. The novel was subtitled "Casino Royale" and made reference to secret agent 007 as "Jimmy Bond" on the back cover. After 1960, the original title Casino Royale replaced You Asked For It for all further paperback editions in the United States.

In 1954, Anthony Boucher reviewed the book for The New York Times, commenting that the book, although about a British Secret Service operative, belongs "pretty much to the private-eye school" of fiction. He praised the first part, saying that

Fleming, in a style suggesting a more literate version of Cheyney's "Dark" series, manages to make baccarat clear even to one who's never played it and produced as exciting a gambling sequence as I've ever read. But then he decides to pad out the book to novel length and leads the weary reader through a set of tough clichés to an ending which surprises nobody save Operative 007. You should certainly begin this book; but you might as well stop when the baccarat game is over.

It has been claimed that Fleming based Lynd on Christine Granville/Krystyna Skarbek. Fleming stated that Casino Royale was inspired by certain incidents that took place during his career at the Naval Intelligence Division of the Admiralty. The first, and the basis for the novel, was a trip to Lisbon that Fleming and the Director of Naval Intelligence, Admiral Godfrey, took during World War II en route to the United States. While there, they went to the Estoril Casino in Estoril, which  had a number of spies of warring regimes present. Fleming claimed that while there he was cleaned out by a "chief German agent" at a table playing chemin de fer. Admiral Godfrey tells a different story: Fleming only played Portuguese businessmen and that afterwards Fleming had fantasised about there being German agents and the excitement of cleaning them. His references to 'Red Indians'  comes from Fleming's own 30 Assault Unit, which he nicknamed his own 'Red Indians'.

The failed assassination attempt on Bond while at Royale-Les-Eaux is also claimed by Fleming to be inspired by a real event. The inspiration comes from a failed assassination on Franz von Papen who was a Vice-Chancellor and Ambassador under Adolf Hitler. Both Papen and Bond survive their assassination attempts, carried out by Bulgarians, due to a tree that protects them both from a bomb blast.

Fleming wrote "Casino Royale" in Jamaica in 1952, two months before his wedding to pregnant girlfriend, Ann Charteris. There is speculation that he wrote the "ultimate spy novel" about giving up things in life, such as giving up bachelorhood for marriage.

The city of Royale-les-Eaux and its casino are inspired by Le Touquet-Paris-Plage or by Deauville, where Fleming used to play as a young man.