CHEAP TRIPS TO RUIN

Greymouth Evening Star, 19 June 1930, Page 11

CHEAP TRIPS TO RUIN

PROBLEM AT BOULOGNE. British working-class people who go to Boulogne attracted by the 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. Tho Le Touquet season recently opened, and with it the gambling season in Normandy and Brittany commenced. Even the smallest and least pretentious of the many resorts along this coast now boasts a casino.

The object originally was to provide a little flutter for the venturesome tourist on holiday during the summer months. But in many cases /he casinos 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 roach those resorts 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. Tho 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 viatique, i.e„ the means to get them home or pay their hotel bill.

“Quite a number of the workingclass type, who can ill-afford to risk their hard-earned pounds, regularly come over,” said a consular official. “Every day during the summer we have applications for assistance from people who are stranded in consequence of having gambled away their money.

“The casino authorities cannot, of course, know the financial standing ol 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 these have gone on the tables, they often find they cannot pay their hotel bills.”