Create the Right Atmosphere
Turn most of the lights off. Casinos are dim everywhere except the tables, so light yours from above with a single lamp or a cluster of candles and let the rest of the room fall away. Black, gold and a hit of red is the colour scheme to borrow: a black tablecloth, gold candlesticks, red napkins, and stacked chips do a lot of the decorating on their own.
For a theme, Art Deco does the most work for the least effort. The V&A sums the style up in five words, playful, luxurious, exotic, geometric, modern, and for a party the useful one is geometric. Fan shapes, sunbursts and sharp chevrons on the menu cards and place settings read as 1920s casinos from across the room, and the same motifs can go on the inviations. If you're building the table from scratch, this guide to tablescaping covers the layering. Music should be low and old: big band, early Bond scores, anything with brushed drums.
Dress for the Occasion
Put "cocktail attire" on the invitation and most people will know what to do. Debrett's lists knee-length cocktail dresses as the most popular choice for women even under black tie, and for cocktail attire it lets men leave the bow tie at home and wear a smart lounge suit or a velvet jacket, so the people who own a dinner jacket can wear it and the people who don't aren't stuck.
Accessories do the rest: a long glove, a brooch that catches the candlelight, proper shoes. Ask people to dress as if they might be photographed and a few will turn up in character.
Plan the Food and Drinks
Nothing that needs a knife and fork. Casino food is eaten standing up with one hand, so think small and cold: smoked salmon on blinis, devilled eggs, cheese straws, a bowl of good olives. Lay it all out before anyone arrives so you're not in the kitchen while the wheel is spinning.
The drink to make is the Vesper, the martini James Bond invented in Casino Royale: three parts gin to one of vodka and half a measure of Lillet, shaken hard and finished with a thin twist of lemon. For anyone not drinking, a tonic with a dash of bitters and the same twist looks identical in the glass, so the table photographs the same for everyone.
Choose the Entertainment
At home, roulette is the easiest game to run because it asks nothing of the players. One person spins, everyone else puts chips on numbers, and the host calls the result.
You'll be borrowing from a London tradition. The capital's casinos began as members' clubs, two of them now live in buildings that opened as West End theatres, and one of those names is on a website as well: the Hippodrome Online Casino runs roulette and blackjack for real money under a British licence. Since October 2025, British sites have had to prompt you to set a deposit limit before your first deposit, and the habit is worth copying at home. Agree the stakes before the first spin, in plastic.
Blackjack needs a dealer who can add to 21 under pressure, and poker needs the most explaining, so save it for people who already play. Give everyone the same stack of chips at the door and crown whoever has the most at midnight.
Bringing It Together
What people remember afterwards is the friend who refused to leave the table while losing steadily, the Vesper that was slightly too strong, and the host calling "no more bets" with total authority. The decorations and the dress code set that up, and the guest list does the rest.