MONTE CARLO BOOM

Greymouth Evening Star, 10 August 1920, Page 6

MONTE CARLO BOOM

RECORD GAMBLING

WAYS OF THE. PLUNGERS

The receipts at the gambling' tables of Monte Carlo this year are nearly double what they were just before the war, and the scene in the sporting club of nights was an amazing' show of thp most extreme fashions and the most dazzling jewels of every kind, writes the correspondent of a London journal in May. Extreme fashions are now synonymous with extreme economy of customs. The array of hare backs —"Lo and behold’’ in the current slang—became quite monotonous. Mrs Langtry was among tin's crowd, showing' a back as generoius as the rest. One rapid French girl titillated the jaded interest by having two hearts transfixed by an arrow tattooed on her left shoulder blade in jade green. , THE HOAD TO RUIN.

As a rule, there are three stages in the Casino career of the individual who sets out to despoil M. Blanc. First, he is to be seen staking lavishly with variable luck. It is a curious fact that players often win to begin with, thus being tempted to their eventual destruction. The next stage of the persistent player, be is seen planking lon is where at the outset be squandered 100-francs plaques and exercising immense caution in choosing' sixes or dozens so as to secure better odds against the table. The last stage of all, bis available resources exhausted, be may be seen looking disconsolately over the beads of the players, making imaginary coups—which come off with a much higher percentage of success than real ones. ONLY WINNERS IN END. So they troop along in relays, full of hope, and so they depart—in the great majority of cases —- si ill fuller of disappointment. Those who win and stop are the only ones that live to play another day. Those who- tell’ you-—and they are legion—that they went to Monte Carlo, paid all their expenses through the tables and sent home a tidy sum, may be regarded as the victims of a harmless, self-consoling hallucination.

A wealthy Loudon tobacco merchant, in combination with a leading advertising agent, came last month to break the bank on the even chances —rouge et noir, pair o\ impair, passe et manque. They played at separate tables with big piles of 1000-franc notes. When one. won at one table the other lost at the other, and after a few days they both lost—and stole silently U NO RING TO THE CHIPS. But withal, Monte Carlo is not the same as before the war. The substitution of celluloid chips for bard real money, for silver and gold pieces, makes a lot of difference at the tables. The dull clatter of the celluloid that greets the ear instead of the clear ring of the precious metal symbolises the flatness that, despite the display of wealth, pervades the whole place. Only the natural beauties of the surroundings retain their old chffrm.

Aside from the excitement of the tables the conversation is full of foreboding as to what a desperate pass old Europe seems to be drifting-. No one pretends to see -daylight through the clouds of discontent, financial complications. and Peace Conference muddling that befog the horizon But it is not the policy of the Casino to provide any counterattraction to the Casino except the opera, which can absorb only an insignificant pvonnrtion of* the crowd who gamble.