“BREAKING THE BANS"
A- curious-demonstration took place .in Paris recently on the initiative of Edouard Rigal, who has made a long study of the game of roulette, with a view to proving that a careful player with a modest capital can be sure of winning. A number of well-known frequenters of the tables at Monte-Carlo aud Ostend assembled, in company with some possessors of so-called "systems” and mathematical experts on the theory of probabilities to watch Rigal play against the bank. The ball was put in motion by a professional croupier, who was later. relieved by two or three players. Rigal started with a capital of 2700 francs (£2l 125.), and, in spite of what is said to have been an exceptional series of unlucky runs, left the table at the end of three hours with a profit of 395 francs (over £3O, reports an English exchange. His highest stake was -180 francs (£3 16s). The ball was put into action 20-1 times, so that the profit works out at one franc ten centimes (3d.) per stake. This result is not so surprising as it seems. It is, in fact, well known that a certain number of small players at Monte Carlo make a regular, if not handsome, livelihood out of the tables. But to do so requires an exhausting watchfulness and restraint. Colonel Elvengren, the unfortunate Finnish officer, who served with great distinction in the war in the Russian Guards, and was virtually tortured to death last year by the Soviet Government in Petrograd, where he was seized on the charge of fomenting a counterrevolutionary plot, at one time adopted this means of keeping body and soul together. With a capital of not more than 1000 francs (£B),. be could,. apparently, be certain of winning 30 francs in a day. lie only played with small stakes, and made it rm absolute rule to leave the table when he bad won 30 francs. But he found playing like that entailed such •i mental strain that after a few months lie preferred to quit the Casino and seek woi-l. as a navvy in the Monaco dockyards
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Bibliographic details
Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 259, 2 August 1928, Page 3
Word Count
355“BREAKING THE BANS" Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 259, 2 August 1928, Page 3
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