BREAKING THE BANK

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 3969, 7 October 1930, Page 2

BREAKING THE BANK

WHERE RICHES COME QUICKLY “All the world’s a stage!” Shakespeare has said, but 1 would go iurthci and declare that every town is a theatre, the setting lor countless dramas wherein real people play their pairs through the whole gamut of tragedy and comedy, writes Jules Lefner, formorlv <i leading official of the Casrno or Monte Carlo, in the ‘ Sunday News. Surely it is not stretching the simde to say that Monte Carlo thus stands supreme among the cities ol the uolid, the National Theatre of them all. Where fortunes are lost and won and the Goddess of Chance rules the day, the rapacity of human nature comes uppermost; the queer traits in us all are clearly seen. We strut the stage and don our clownish masks, but torrential passions may lie beneath the stillest surface. . I remember an old lady who invariably won because she worked on what appeared to be an interchangeable system. She rarely backed the same colour and numbers, but was always correct, and since this caused other players to follow her, the bank was broken not once, but many times. Yet she collected her winnings without a sign of triumph, and save for am occasional pause for a glass of water and a biscuit, staked incessantly until play was discontinued for the night, always winning, day after day. We dubbed her “ Madame Mystery , because siie was never seem outside the Casino, and none appeared to know who she was 01 trum whence she came. But one day the secret was, out. She committed suicide in a garret in the slum quarter where she had lived, and from letters and diaries in her room we gathered the solution to the mystery. It appeared that many years previously her only son had been ruined, both physically and financially, by the gambling habit, and the old lady had conceived the remarkable idea of revenging herself by mining the Casino. It was probably the realisation of failure that led to the final tragedy. Not every successful gambler has so fanatical an object, but the story ol any' man who breaks the bank might be the subject of a novel. The extraordinary drama of daggers, the poor but persistent Englishman, immediately occurs to my mind. (it* was quite certain he could find some system if he was sufficiently patient. Two clerks were employed,to note down all the winning combinations running over a week, and with the result of their labours daggers set to work to find some common denominator. This obtained, he seized his opportunity and staked a small sum. Tt returned to him trebled. He staked again Thus began the first sensational evening, in which daggers won over £20,000. The next day lie continued to win, hut -eventually the officials got wind of his system, and, determined to stop the run of “ luck,” had the wheels changed over. Their move was successful. 'Die Englishman’s luck changed, and lie was forced to abandon the tables, lint not before his calculations had resulted in a profit of £BO,OOO. In pitiful contrast to these victories stands the long list of the failures. Every season brings its full quota of suicides: every week a man is sure to lose'every’ penny he possesses. Let me relate one of the worst cases A rich woman had.been bitten by the gambling virus after a run of luck —but the luck bad not lasted. She won over £60,000, only to lose it and much more besides. We regularly' saw her staking high in the grand Salle, but, evening by '■veiling, her fortune went, and, one by one, her jewels. Her house went, her servants, her friends. For a time she sold matches in the streets. And then the merciful sea claimed her