SHADOWS OF MONTE CARLO

Evening Star, Issue 19520, 30 March 1927, Page 3

SHADOWS OF MONTE CARLO

A RETIRED CROUPIER’S STORY.

There were once so majiy suicides at Monte Carlo that “a little black rowboat, loaded with corpses, would set out once or twice a week, deposit its burden a few miles of! shore, and return empty.” This sinister ferry was operated in 1872, eight years after the founding of the Casino, and at this time “ things were so bad that the only way to stop the suicides was to make them kill themselves somewhere else.” Accordingly an efficient police force was built up, and to-day Monaco and Monte Carlo have the smallest suicide rate in the world. “Try to kill yourself iu Monte and you will see why. You cannot buy poison at Monte. There are no revolvers for sale. And if you carry with you the means to do away with yourself it is likely they will disappear from your baggage while you are away playing at the Casino,” writes “ A Retired Croupier,” in the ‘ Elks Magazine.’ The writer’s father was one of the first four croupiers at the resort, which was founded by one Francois Blame, an ex-waiter, w’ho by speculation on the Paris Bourse had made enough to he considered a financier. It was just before the writer was made a croupier in 1872 that this incident occurred : “ A man seated at a table in front of where 1 was standing drew out n pistol mid fired five times in the air. The table was covered with money; and grabbing a handful of notes, ho got away in the confusion. Tin’s led to a couple of innovations by old Francois; first, a tunnel from the croupier’s money drawer, so that by pressing a button the bottom would slip away amd the money would fall through this -tunnel down to the cellar. And, second, the installation of the secret .police of Monte Carlo. “ A suicide was the thing Blanc feared most of all, for at this period the future of Monte hung in the balance, and it was daily receiving publicity of a very unfortunate nature. It used to anger him when the daily report of deaths was put on his desk, and I remember being on my way home to lunch one noon when a man was stopped in the gardens on the point of shooting himself. Old Francois happened to he going by at the time, and, losing his temper,, he rushed up to the unfortunate man, shaking his fist in J is face: ' ‘ sir > you are no gentleman; if you wish to shoot yourself, go home and do it, not here.’ v “ Formerly we had a special corps of incii to act when a suicide took place ii' the ‘ Usine,’ the Factory, ns the Casino was called locally. When tho shot was fired, tho knife drawn, or tho poison swallowed, L as the croupier pressed a button. Instantly six strong men appeared from a side of the wall made to part as doors, hut looking merely like panels. They hastily wrapped the body in red baize, a man slipped into the vacant place at the table, the croupier spun the ball, droned out the number, the burden was carried behind those walls, and tho whole scene went on as before. It was during the slS period of suicides in the seventies that Francois Blanc organised his system of secret police which to-day acts so effectively. It is more than a coincidence that the police station at Monte Carlo, one of the most completely equipped in the, world, is just around the corner from the Casino itself.” Practically every inhabitant of Monaco, continues the author, is indirectly in the employ of the Casino—hotel workers, tram conductors, guides, iocal tradespeople, servants, “everyone, in short, and all are instructed to find out everything possible about strangers, and are rewarded for their pains at the main office.” Therefore; “ Information is easy to obtain. Searching baggage, for instance, is one way. Now let us assume that you arc a stranger at Monte. You register at a local hotel. Your baggage is probably carefully searched within the first twenty-four hours of your arrivel, and if perchance you have registered under a false name, this fact is checked up against you. If you are a millionaire, you are looked up in the files in the main offices of the Chief of Police, for there, besides a complete record of criminals, with pictures and fingerprints, is a large dossier of millionaires the world over. This file is constantly being added to, , and is always up to date. Meanwhile you write your first letter home, a:*l mail it in the hotel office. “ Very tew letters written from Monte Carlo find their way out unless the officials wish it. Probably nine out of ten are opened first. Your mail in and out is scrutinised, perhaps one of tho best men in the Police Force is 'Maced in the hotel as your valet do chambro. Even your waiter may be a policeman. Meanwhile should you be gambling heavily, a special inspector—yes, that innocent old gentleman who sat beside you at the roulette table—is assigned to your case. Your exact losses and winnings are known in the main office of the Casino within ten minutes after they have occurred. “ And now let me show you how’ suicides are avoided, why the crime and suicide rate in Monte is to-day the lowest the world over. Your letter of credit, which you always carry on you, cannot be seen; but there was that moment when you left it on your table while you took your morning bath. The waiter happens 1 to come into the room with your breakfast just then. And even if he cannot find out, bank employees, tradesmen—everyone is indirectly in the employ of that great Casino, so that it is no task to find out the state of your finances. In a week you have lost, say, a half-million francs. You have only a few thousand left, and you start for the Casino determined to win or kill yourself. As you attempt to enter a .quiet-voiced official blocks your way. Casually no pilots you into an adjoining room, a' sombre chamber away from the hum and the buzz of the tables; “‘Monsieur will find it to his advantage to leave.’ And there is in his eye that which convinces you of the truth of his remarks. You return in his company to your hotel to find with surprise that your baggage is already packed and on top of the omnibus. A hasty trip to the station, you mount the train, and as you pull around tho curve you see that quiet-voiced man with blue-grey eyes standing on the platform, watching, watching. That, mv friend, is Monte Carlo. “ When necessary the ramifications of this system of espionage extend beyond fhn borders of Monaco. “ In 1881 I was promoted and made a chef de partie, a table chief. Each table has two chiefs who sit facing each other. Their duties are to assist the croupier, to watch that no mistakes are made, to act as judges in cases of dispute beyond the power of the croupier to settle, and principally and primarily to spy upon the croupier openly. In fact, the whole system of Monte Carlo is built up on fear; everyone is watched in a way that would do credit to Russia, old or new. The valets de pied, or chasseurs, who stand around to do errands, as I did once, are watched by themselves and by tho attendants; the croupiers are watched by the chefs de partie and the sub-inspec-tors who frequent the rooms in uniform; the sub-inspectors are watched by inspectors, who sit at tho tables in civilian clothes and are unknown to anyone; tho inspectors are watched day and night by the higher officials of the local police. And so it goesC . “It was while I was chef de partie that the viaticum was instituted. The viaticum is the dole given to players

who lose all their money and cannot return home. . Except the three Anaericans mentioned above an Englishman by means of the viaticum is the only person who to my knowledge ever fooled the Casino. Originally many gamblers took the money given them for a ticket, and threw it away on the tables, until the Casino sent an official to the station to buy their ticket for them. A young Oxford man appeared one day after having lost several thousand francs, with the news that lie could not leave because his hotel bill remained unsettled. A visit, to his hotel by an official proved the apparent truth of his claim. Camille Blanc, the son, was in command at the time, and he finally ordered the bill of 3,000 francs paid. When the young Oxford man reached the station be had 1.500 francs of that money in his pocket. “ Nowadays, however,, such a trick would be impossible. ■ To receive the viaticum you must undergo a severe cross-examination, yon must appear before the croupiers at the table for identification, and you must sign a paper agreeing never to enter the Casino again. In the past sixty years nearly seven million francs have been given out by the Casino, but as one who for several years had charge of this particular department I can assure you that whoever received a ticket home earned it fully. And also that few if any dissemblers succeeded in deceiving us. The viaticum is the blackmail which the Casino pays to public opinion throughout the world. That and nothing more. 11 1 am frequently asked if it is possible to break the bank at Monte Carlo, and the best answer to that is to tell you about Charles 11. Wells, the hero of the famous song, ‘ The Man Who Broke the Bank of Monte Carlo.’ I knew all about Wells, ior ns Une of the oldest employees in the room I was always assigned to his table, first as chef de partie, and then as an inspector, by Camille Blanc in the year 1891, when he made such a sensation. Wells was n commonplace Englishman who had made about 20,000 dollars by a series of financial coups in England. We knew all about him, and were ready for him when he came.

“ The third day of his visit I was called into the main office by Monsieur Camille Blanc, unlike his father, a terrific coward, and I found him worried enough. “ ‘ This typo Wells,’ he said to me. He wins, he wins with no system, he wins heavily. I am embarrassed with him, I am unable to understand his success. You, Bertolinij will act as grand chef de partie at his table from this morning. Watch him carefully, report to me twice each day.’

** I obeyed instructions, and when Wells came in, followed by bis usual hangers-on, I watched him closely. The truth was that as far ns I could see his winning was sheer luck. He played without any system, threw numbers all round the table, and won, won incredibly. In a few minutes the table was six or seven deep with people attempting to play with him, and the croupiers were overwhelmed with men and women crying in French, German, English, and Italian, in Hindu and Urdu, and every known language for their stakes to be placed on the same number Wells backed. In the course of two hours he had won the 100,000 francs with which each table starts out every morning, and it was necessary to send to the office for more. “ Now this is what is meant by breaking the bank. As there were even then a dozen tables of roulette, besides several trente <jt qnarant tables,_ and as each table could be replenished twenty times a day without in the least 'jeopardising the financial status of the Casino, you can see how well this Englishman deserved his title. We scon received another 100,000, and play was resumed. However, the confusion was tejrifle. I was forced to limit the number of people playing around the table, causing a scene by those who imagined I was afraid they would win "too heavily. But nothing would go against him. All that season he won and won handsomely. It is a fact that at least ten of the best men from the police force were set to watch him, but nothing was of avail. He could be detected in no fraud, though he was shadowed day and night. “ He went away in May of that year, but returned in the winter of 1892, and I can remember Camille Blanc rubbing his hands with glee when one of his secret agents in London —for by this time his system of espionage extended all around the world—telegraphed that W ells would be in Monte within the month. Blanc was happy, because he knew well the maxim implanted in him by his father; ‘‘Red wins sometimes, black wins sometimes, white always.” (A play on the word “ Blanc.” which moans white in French.) " ‘ ‘ But the start of the year was not favorable to us. Surrounded by hundreds of admirers, all of whom lost when playing as ho did upon other tables, Wells won five maximunis—that is, five times with the' maximum stake—on the number five. 'Five had always been lucky ior him, and then Blanc really was worried. I well remember that evening shortly after midnight when we closed, the whole force of croupiers, chefs, and inspectors .being subjected to a grilling in his gloomy old room in the basement. Then just as quickly and as mysteriously as Wells had been winning he lost. As thcro had been no ’•eason for the one, there was none for the other. He lost heavily, turned to his favorite number five, lost again. We were not surprised when one day he had disappeared from Monte Carlo. ‘‘‘He who breaks the bank to-day will be broken by the bank to-mor-row,’ said old Francois Blanc, that wise and astute observer of mankind. But- Wells did something more than merely to return the money he had taken away from the Casino. His name and his reputation followed him for a year wherever he went, he was written about in every newspaper in the civilised world ; and the actual value of the publicity to Monte Carlo in general and to tire Casino in particular was worth many million dollars. Thousands who had never been to Monte Carlo, who had never dreamed of gambling, who otherwise would never have entered the Casino, came down and threw away huge sums of money in an attempt to emulate Wells. Had he kept all his winnings, had not a penny ever returned to the administration, we might well have considered orselves lucky in the matter. As it was, 1891 marked the turning -point of the Casino. From then on Camille Blanc feared nothing. Ho knew, and rightly, too, that he was now beyond any. possibility of failure. “ A system has never yet been found to win at Monte Carlo, but systems do limit your losses and protect you more than mere slinging money a’-ont the > tables. Women are prone to sling their money carelessly. Before the war I should have said that the Russian men. especially the grand dukes, were supreme in the difficult art of losing money at Monte Carlo. They _ were magnificent men; played the highest stakes with utmost courage, and never flinched when their losings were large, as they invariably were. In 1896 .the Grand Duke Pan! startled the administrators of the Casino by winning 650.000 francs in one week; a phenomena! feat when you consider that we had him carefully watched, and even went so far as to change croupiers every ton minutes. But, after all. it is not hard to gamble with other people’s money. On the whole, it seems to me, as I look hack over the years, that the Greeks are the cleverest of all races at the green tables. They have the rare ability of being able to play and stop when ahead.”