A MILLION GAMBLE

Evening Star, Issue 21624, 20 January 1934, Page 9

A MILLION GAMBLE

“NO SUCH THING AS LUCK ” , M. Nicolai Zographos’, slight, dapper, imperturbable baccarat king of Cannes and Deauville, was recently in Britain. Behind the operations of the syndicate which is led by two men, M. Zographos and M. Couyoumdjan, arid which controls the world’s biggest gambling centres, is a remarkable story of life-long friendship and trust. M. Zographos operates exclusively in Cannes and Deauville; M.- Couyoumdjau plays only in Monte Carlo. They meet one a year and once only. Neither asks for particulars or details of any sort. The account between them is adjusted then and there verbally. This was secret No. 1 divulged to me at a London hotel by the great gambler’s secretary, M. Ehrlich, who functioned during the interview as interpreter and explainer-in-chief, writes a 1 Sunday Chronicle ’ special representative. “M. Zographos has an amazing brain.” he said ; “ huge series and combinations of numbers can be docketed in it. . ~ “ Famous people all over the world have tried to pit their skill at one time or another against his. Sir Abe Bailey tried and failed. The Dolly Sisters tried repeatedly—and they failed.” “ And you control the Greek syndicate? ” I asked, turning to the silent M. Zographos. . . The master gambler shrugged his shouldets. In broken English he started to answer, my question, but the secretary again came to the rescue. “ He has staked as much as a million francs at a time,” he said. “In his whole career he has never had more than a short temporary run of failures. “ Yet, in spite of the fact that the richest men and women in the world have tried to beat him, I have never seen him’show the slightest trace of emotion.” . M. Zographos is so alive that i had estimated his age .as 35. But I was wrong. He is 477 He was smiling enigmatically as the secretary continued to unraVel the mystery of his personality. " _ . , “ Gambling is in his blood,” he said, "He started gambling as a boy at school, and'he has'never stopped since. He has staked fortunes on a single chance. I asked M. Zographos if he believed in luck. He shook his head vigorously. “There is no such thing as luck for the real gambler,” explained M,Ehrlich.