MONTE CARLO BOOM

Wanganui Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 160735, 23 August 1920, Page 11

MONTE CARLO BOOM

GAMBLING MANIA BEATS ALL RECORDS. MAYS OF THE PLUNGERS. The receipts at the gambling tables of Mcnte Carlo this year arc nearly double what they were just before the war, and the- act-no in the sporting club of nights was an amazing show of the 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 bare backs—“Lo and behold!” in the current slang —became quite monotonous. Airs Langtry was among this crowd, showing a back as generous as the rest. One rapid French girl titillated the jaded interest by having two hearts transfixed by an arrow tattooed on her left shoulderblade in jade green. THE ROAD TO RUIN. * As a rule there are three stages in thq Casino career of the individual who sets out to despoil M. Blanc. First, ho is to bo seen staking lavishly with variable luck. It is a curious fact that powers often win to begin with, thus ulng tempted to their eventual destruction. 'llic next stage of the persistent plavcr is that he is seen planking lonia where at the outset he squandered 100franc plaques, and exercising immense caution of choosing sixes or dozens, so as to secure oettor odds against tho table. The last stage of all, his available resources exhausted, he may be scon looking disconsolately over tho heads of the players, making imaginary coups —which come off with a much higher percentage of success than real ones. TUB ONLY WINNERS IN THE END, So they troop along in relays, full of hope, and so they depart—in tho great juniority of cases—still fuller oi disappointment- Those who win and stop arc 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 homo a tidy sum, may bo regarded as the victims of a harmless, self-con soling hallucination. A wealthy London tobacco merchant, in combination with a leading advertising agent, came last mouth to break the bank on the even chances—rouge et r.nir, pair ct impair, passe ct 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 home. NO RING TO THE CHIPS.But, wunal, Monte Carlo is not the game as before the war, The substitution of celluloid chips for hard real money, for silver and gold pieces, makes a lot cf difference at the tables. The dull clatter of the celluloid that greets the ear instead of the dear ring of tho precious metal symbolises the flatness that, despite the* display of wealth, pervades the whole plaoi. Only the natural beauties of the surroundings retain ibeir old charm. Aside from I^ le excitement of tho tables, the conversation is full of foreboding as to what e desperate pass old Europe seems steadily drifting. No one pretends to see daylight through the clouds of discontent, financial complications and Peace Conference muddling that befog tho horizon. But it is not the of the Casino to provide any counter-attraction to the Casino except tho op:-ra, which can absorb only an insignificant proportion of tho crowd who gamble.