CASINO LOSSES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 112, 14 May 1935, Page 11

CASINO LOSSES.

NO YEARLY DIVIDEND.

MONTE CARLO'S LOWEST RETURNS. ROTJXETTE "WAR" "WITH FRANCE. (Special.—By Air Mail.) MONTE CARLO, April 20. Shareholders in Monte Carlo's famous Casino were told at the annual meeting this week that there would be no dividend. Net profits for the financial year just ended are about £13,500 —smallest ever recorded for the world's gambling centre. Last year they were more than £400,000 — and" that was a record low figure. Casino shares have fallen to about £13 10/. Four years ago they were worth £80; during the Riviera boom period they reached £210. The dividend then was 1<53 per cent.

The "caeino war, , ' which has now been going on two years, is the direct cause of Monte Carlo's plight. Roulette, which used to lie Monte Carlo's monopoly, is now played in all the French casinos. Monte Carlo tried to meet the now competition by leasing the Palais de la MwHterrene- , , the sumptuous casino in Nice built by Mr. Frank Jay Gould, the American ' multi-millionaire, which was burned out a year and a half ago. The rent was £27,000 a year. The building was completely restored, 'with all its luxury, at tremendous cost. Roulette tables 'were installed.

But this attempt to carry the war into the enemy's territory has failed. Most of the profits of Monte Carlo Casino were swallowed up in the Nice venture. The directors have not renewed the lease. The big shareholders of Monte Carlo Casino, objecting to the "war ,, policy, have tsold out. Sir Basil Zaharoff " and Mr. Charles M. Schwab, the American steel king, are among them.