EUROPE'S GAMBLING HELL.

Evening Star, Issue 11681, 13 February 1902, Page 5

EUROPE'S GAMBLING HELL.

It ; s a strange comment on the moral progress of the world that perhapi the most prosperous little State in Europe iit the beginning of the twentieth cenlur* exists in defiance of all moralitv. Fifty vears ago two men opened a gambling room in Monaco ; to-day the gambling "runs" the State, pays its taxes, "makes its roads, supports its schools, lights its streets, bui.ds up its charities, erects its palaces, feeds Us Prince, and—endows its cathedral! Surely since the world began no State ever had such an infamous source of prosperity as t!ia State of Monaco has in the "Anonymous Company of Sea Baths and Strangers' Club ' which we call Monte Carlo. There is, it ought to be said, one saving virtue in the system which allows a State to depend on a gambling hell. The people of Monaco have the good sense not to gamble themselves, and no citizen, save on one day a year, may enter the Casino. "!' men from other lands, with more money than brains, choose to lose their brain; and leave their money in Monaco," iho native argument seems to run, "we have nothing to do with it. At least we will use their money well, and wash our hands of the channel through which it comes. H J all very sad, says the moralist, bnt-it mys. How completely tie spmt of the Casino rules Monaco most peopl* know Tima was when the counters used at the tables were accepted outside as money but the circulation was stopped it was found that the counter, had «d» number outside the Casmo, and that a gang of fake coiners were making >hem la.t as thev could at La Turbie. . The whole State has grown rich ancc the amblers came, and not the State onlj but The roast for a hundred miles round. Sandy soil worth five pounds an acre, jfty miles from Monaco, has realised two thousand pounds an acre in thirty years-, tht two holds in the State have muit-'piied by twentv-four, and as against jewellers and seventeen vine merchants twenty years iuto there are to-day fifteen jewellers and eighty-five wine merchants. A thousand people are kept in regular work at the (.Vino itself, and honest folk who live by honest means have grown rich m spite ot thranelvcs through the remarkable development, of the State. The people Mynnte rates not; taxes, and, compared with tW condition of Monaco fifty years ago, Monte Carlo, if it has become a gambling hell, has become, too, a gambling parage 11* ..amblers found the State in «t dfplorable condition, and the soil was exact I«• suited for ilie reception of the seed they were sowin- A hundred and fifty men one night s-U down to a banquet, with a Prince among them, and the Casino was begun Francois Blanc, the Napoleon of gambling, found the walls half built, and in a turned note, offered the Prince 1,700,000 francs for the unfinished Casino and all iU nnvileges. '■ I must have his answer at once, as 1 am leaving to-morrow," he said, and the answer came Imck quickly. It was " Yes.-' The frenchman completed the handsome building, made his fortune, and then diea. His widow withdrew from the gambling business with many millions of fraJics. The Casino whs handed over to a company with au enormous capital, and the gentle Prince renewed the concession for the modest consideration of a thousand, pounds - week, with an extra tnfle of £20,000 a year to keep up his bodyguard. The "rambling tables, on when Lord RosshVis said" to be endeavoring to retrieve his fortunes, are not kept 'up for nothing Mere are some interesting figures of the'financial side of the Casino, showing the direct expenses :

£834,000 That is th" cost of keeping up Mono Carlo in the first instance —the" irreducible minimum of expenditure. But there remains another sum, which brings the hill up to within roach of a million. To the £834.000 proper, which may be set down ;is the cost of maintenance of the Casino piomr. must be added another £130,000". which is expended in the public service. There is. in the first place, £50,000 ii. vear to the Prince of Monaco, with an additional £20.000 for " bodyguards, police, law courts, and Government." The lighting ;:nd water supplies drain the revenue of the tables to the extent of £19,000, and tht, prizes lh« authorities are called upon to offer at carnivals, races, pigeon shootings, ;ind other amusements absorb another £II,OOO. Public works and roads run away with £3,000, and among the other channels of public expenditure issuing from the Casino are these :

11, hardly 1o b? wondered at that the Casino is one of the strongest institutions in the world. The lives of the people, from the Prince down to his humblest subject, are linked to the roulette table, and the vice all respectable societv denounces is -he vcrv breath of life to the State of Monaco. -A.M.. 'St. James's Gazf-tte.'

Management and personnel—. : :ix teen hundred 1:1 all . £l£-0,Q00 Fireman and maintenance of a •ardens - '... 25.000 Maintenance of building, etc. . . 22,000 Thtatre and orchestra ... 41.000 "Cirants to the Cress"" ... 25,000 '■ ViatiMim " ... 12.000 0rants to invalids, pensioners.: ird private 9,000 Iii"htinc and heating .. 10,000

Bishop, clergy, and educational institutions ..■ — •-• -• £9,000 Charities ~ — •- 6,000 Printing »• ■•• 2,000 Losl on Post Office i.v.- _ 2,000 State waslihotif.es and baths 3,000