THE GAMBLERS' MECCA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 14587, 25 January 1911, Page 7

THE GAMBLERS' MECCA.

MONTE CARLO WINNINGS.

ARMY CAPTAIN'S LUCK.

By Telegraph.—Press Association.—Copyright.

(Received January 24, 10 p.m.)

Paris, January 24. Captain De Courry Bowers continues his sensational winnings at Monte Carlo, and up to date has cleared £220,000.

Captain Bowers employs five players, and his method consists in staking 1000 francs on the red, and letting it run. He won 18 maximums running at trente-et-quarante, the bank sending for money five times. GAMING SYSTEMS EXPLAINED. Far the larger number of persons who visit the great gambling salon at Monte Carlo play the game of "roulette." The apparatus is simple. A large, black, wooden basin, around the inside of which are 37 little compartments, each of which bears a number, 0, 1, 2, 3, and so on to 36. From the centre of this bowl a pivot rises by means of which the croupier can set rapidly revolving the detached circular bottom which contains the numbers. As he does this, he drops a small ivory ball, sending it with a sweeping motion of the hand around the upper edge of the stationary part of the bowl in the opposite direction to the rotating half containing the numbers. Slowly the two momenti decrease,- and at last the ball, after a series of now quite erratic and wholly chanceful movements, drops into a numbered compartment. The colour and number thus indicated are the winners. The remainder of t*he outfit ' con-, sists of two tables continuous to each side of the table into which the wheel proper is set. Marked, on these tables, which are covered with green cloth, is a diagram, numbered and coloured, showing the various chances of play. There are the, 36 numbers in horizontal rows of three; a larger space tops these columns for • the 0 (zero). Then there are at the sides of the columns the chances simple, labelled passe, manque; pair, impair; rouge and noir; all the chances for even money. Again, at the base of the diagram, the various dozens may be played, 1 to 12, 12 to 24, and so on as also the three columns. The bank offers two to one on all these. If you desire a hazard, you place your money, or ask a croupier to do so, on 'the various points of play as indicated on this table. Five francs is the lowest stake he will accept, and 6000 francs the highest, and that only on the even chances. When the stakes are all in position, the croupier calls out: " Messieurs, faites vos jeux." The wheel and the ball are set in motion.. " Rien neva plus". is then drawled out, which means nothing more may be staked. Chance then gats to work, ; and you lose or win in exact extent as to how much and where you placed your-money. There is no cheating at Monte Carlo. If you have chosen the winning number, and put your stake only on that number, the bank pays you 35 to 1; for a fivefranc piece the croupier deftly pushes over to you 175 francs, and so on. " The charm of the game is apparent," says a recent writer, " the fascination and excitement are bound to hold you, as they did me, during many lucky days. I saw the strong and the weak alike enthralledmany people of many lands. I almost think, too, there were more women than men. Some played the game, with definite system, some in the most erratic manner. The same fate overtook all. At roulette, . roughly, the bank wins three per cent, of all the money staked. As you play, this hard, mathematical fact is establishing : itself against you. _ You may win at; first —indeed, many times— you may.be elated by reason of your first successes, but the day of reckoning comes. All your winnings first get back to the bank, and then your pocket will pay this subtle three per cent, for all your fine sport of many days. It is so simple— need 1 even explain? the company who run the place yearly reap in profits to the tune of over one and a-half million pounds sterling ! The fateful zero takes your money. Mathematically, once in 36 spins of the wheel,. it , always appearsl mean in the long reckoning— and each time the bank rakes in the stakes. There are systems, some will say, that will defeat the bank. I have not found one. Two factors settle - all systemsone, the bank's limit, which prevents the doubling and martingale systems so often ' advocated; the second, the extraordinary idiosyncrasies of chance. Trente-et-quarante is a simpler game than roulette it offers : only four - chances, all of them for even money. I shall* not go into the details of the manner of the play of this game. Suffice it to say it concerns the numbers and colours of ordinary playing-cards as they are at. random dealt out. Six packs of cards are shuffled together, and dealt from. New packs are always used for each deal. All this, is done with great care, for at times very large sums of money are on the table; 12,000 francs is the limit of play, while a golden louis, or 20 francs, is the lowest sum allowed to be staked."