A LITTLE MORE ABOUT MONTE CARLO.

Bruce Herald, Volume XXII, Issue 2264, 12 May 1891, Page 4

A LITTLE MORE ABOUT MONTE CARLO.

■■■;.■■' >-" .-•'•-.'- ■' ■ •;;* — m^—^- — - — ■ ■' .■'■'■ ■ < 'The Times' correspondent at- Nice vtelegraphed :— -Great interest has been; displayed m the accounts you have 'published of the gambling at Monte Carlo ; aad the Casino people and their friends have nob failed to use these descriptions of the PH^QMEN-fTi GppD LTJCK of some of the play era for the purpose of making known the momentary advantage gained over the bank. The desired results arefollowing this manoeuvre. The rooms are kept filled j thei interest and hopes of the players are sustained. > The Casino Company •draws the greater proportion of its enormous profits from the crowds of smaller players. They rush to imitate in their little way the richer men who stake the maximum, and as their capital is limited the result is inevitable. A group CAME TO GSIEF to-day by following in this way the play of one of the recent large winneis, for he had very bad luck, and almost all those around the table lost too. It occurred to me that it would be most interesting and useful to others to record the actual experiences of the heavy gamblers, whose extraordinary play has been the cause of so much excitement. The result of my conversation with them is that although they have succeeded in BBEAKING THE BA>'K A DOZEN TIMES in a week they are by no me ins great winners upon the whole. In counting up the sums taken from the tables, it is necessary to reckon the amount of previous losses. All tb^se heroes of the hour at trente et quarante state, with one exception, that at ih^ end of it all they are losers. The lucky one is a Greek, who, aft^r having nbrained an advantage over the bauk of £400, had the GOOD SENSE TO LEAVE MONTE CAIiLO for his native country with the money in his pocket. But take the ex- i periences of the Englishman already j referred to. They prove conclusively the utter impossibility of getting the i better of these tables, even with extraordinary good luck, no lack of courage and plenty of capital. For 12 years he has been a regular player at \ Monte Carlo. He is an experienced gambler, with a thorough knowledge of the game, and yet he has 2TETEB LEFT LESS THAN £10,000 PEE ANNUM in the coffers of the bank. Sometimes his losses have reached £15,000 ; sometimes Ten days ago he was the latter amount out of pocket upon this season's play, but the series of maximum stakes won last week have enabled him to recover it and about £1000 in addition. Altogether, however, his losses at Monte Carlo during the past ten years amount to £125,000. He can, therefore, claim, as he remarked to me to-day, to have GIVEN THE GAME A FAIB TRIAL. He intends to leave on Saturday, and never to return. The others agree that even with good luck it is impossible to make money at Monte Carlo, excepting it be by appropriating the stakes of other people, a practice which is common enough, especially at the roulette tables. The odds against the players are too great. They are in reality much more than the one or two per cent, generally supposed, and the advice which these players give to visitors is — " If you are not prepared to lose do not play." The Englishman wishes me to make a PSOTEST ON BEHALF OF THE HEAYT GAMBLEES against the conduct of the managers of the Casino, who, he says, are annoyed,, not so much at their absolute losses, as because the players have had the good fortune to get back something like two millions of francs which the bank had already counted upon as profits. He says they have been treated unfairly upon two or three occasions. There have been misdeals by the croupier, either intentionally or through nervousness, when large sums of money have been upon the table, and further that they have been wa'ched and tracked like pickpockets by the police of the Casino. It has always been understood . that everything is fair and above board, and that if the gambling is authorised there is no cheating, but the allegations made by these pjayers do not. tend to sustain the confidence hitherto placed in the Bank of ,Mpnte Carlo by its patrons.