CHEAP TRIPS TO RUIN

Evening Star, Issue 20510, 14 June 1930, Page 10

CHEAP TRIPS TO RUIN

, British working-class people who go to Boulogne attracted .'by tho cheap trips to the French resort where gambling is the chief amusement have created a serious problem which the authorities, will have to tackle this year, says a correspondent of the ‘ Sunday Chronicle/ The Lo Touquet season recently opened, and with it the gambling season in Normandy and Brittany commenced. Even tho smallest and least pretentious of tho many resorts along this coast now boast a casino Tho object originally was to provide a little flutter for the venturesome tourist on holiday during the summer months. But in many cases the casions, have proved an irresistible lure, to the small punter who, with a cheap holiday ticket costing little over a pound, and without the need for passports, can reach those rpserts in a few hours’ journey from England. Consequently, the number of people who make trips for no other purpose than to gamble, is becoming a menace. The trouble is that the majority do not know when to stop. Tho number of applications by British tourists to the Consul at Boulogne for financial assistance increases every year. Last year it was a daily occurrence for someone to ; apply for what is known in Monte Carlo as the viatiquo, i.e., tho means to got them homo or pay; their hotel bill. “Quito a number of tho workingclass type, who can ill-afford to risk their hard-earned pounds, regularly come over,” said a consular officer. “Every day during the_ summer we have applications for assistance from people who are stranded iri consequence of having gambled away their money. “ Tho casino authorities cannot, of course, know the financial standing of everyone who goes into the sallee des jeux, and they cannot be expected to assist everyone who is stranded through folly. , . “Some week-enders only bring a few pounds, and when those have gone on the table they often find they cannot pay their hotel bills.”