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Gaming is situated at an altitude of 430 m in the Ötscher mountains in southwest Lower Austria. The first mentioning in a document dates from 1274 (Gemnik). In 1322, the Habsburg Dukes Albrecht II (1298–1358) and his brother Leopold I (1290–1326) vowed to build a monastery. After the death of Leopold, Albrecht started to build the cistercian monastery of Gaming in 1332. Ten years later, the monastery church was completed. Scheibbs became the seat of the administration of the monastery's domains in 1338. In 1782 the monastery was closed by order of Emperor Joseph II. At that time the monastery had more than 500 monks. The possessions of the monastery were sent to Vienna. However, the largest part including precious manuscripts from the monastery library never arrived there and are still missing today. In 1898, the last part of the narrow gauge railway line in the Ybbs valley from Kienberg/Gaming to Lunz am See was opened. Two steel trestlework bridges, typical for american mountain railroads but uncommon in Europe, are a major attraction. During World War II, art treasures from the museum of art-history in Vienna were stored in the former monastery. In 1985, the bones of Albrecht II were transferred back into the crypt of the monastery. Since 1990, the monastery is the seat of the European branch of the Franciscan University of Steubenville, Ohio. The area east of Gaming is protected as a nature reserve (Ötscher-Tormäuer, 90 km²) since 1970.

The parish church Sankt Philipp und Jakob [far left, barely visible] was completed in 1520 in late Gothic style. The Baroque high altar originally stood in the funeral chapel of the cistercian monastery. Between 1797 and 1985, the remains of Albrecht II were buried next to the altar. The Baroque organ, which originally stood in a former monastery in Ybbs an der Donau, is said to have been played by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in 1762. The church tower dates from prior to 1844. The stone relief above the south entrance of the church ("Gaminger Vesperbild") dates from 1420. Between Christmas and Candlemas (Purification of the Virgin Mary or Presentation of Christ in the Temple, 2 February) the Baroque Cistercian nativity scene of around 1720 with its 1 m tall wooden figures is exhibited in the church.