The new North-west. [volume] (Deer Lodge, Mont.) 1869-1897, 1881-02-18
The Little Game.

| There are altogether some ten or twelve
tables In the two gambling rooms at Monte
Carle. If you have never seen roulette
table before, say at Hombourg or Baden Ba-
den, in the old days, you will be some time
before you can discover on what principle
the money is lost and won. All you will see
at first is a number of long tables, each sur
rounded by rows of well-dressed men and
better dressed women three files deep, and
each covered by heaps of gold and notes,
scattered about mysteriously on certain ca
balistic numbers, squares and diamonds; the
larger part of which the croupier rakes in
with small wooden cue, after each turn of
the roulette wheel. But after while you
will see that the game Is simple enough, all
complexity depending upon the variety of
ways in which you may stake your money.
Tho roulette wheel contains a small pea,
which may jump out into any one of the 81
compartments, numbered from zero TO 80, re-
spectively. Moreover, each alternate num-
Der is colored red or white. On the table
are 80 numbered squares, from to 80. You
may, If you like, simply put your money on
red or on black, in which case If you win,you
receive just the amount yol risked. Or you
may stake OH any one of the numbers sepa-
rately, say 20; in which case the winner
pockets IS times his stake. Or again, you
may back any one of four numbers, by put
ting yon coin on the angles where they meet;
and then, if any of the four are successful,
you win twice what you risk. Or, finally,
you may back any one row Of IL figures
against the other two rows. In every case
the amount of your winnings depends upon
the number of chances against you. Of
course, when zero turns up, everybody loses,
and the bank makes a haul. Otherwise it
stands to lose or win merely the difference
between its takings and its payments, which
are on the average about equal. In other
words, the bank wins in the long run about
one haul to the good out Of every 81. Not Q
bad percentage, either, considering the vast
sums of money always on the table. At rou-
lette the minimum sum is 81; the maximum
is 6,OOOf. Trente ct qnarante, more aristo-
cratic game, is only played for gold, the
smallest allowable stake being napoleon.
At both games the regular players, who come
early on purpose, have chairs to accommo-
date them around the tables. There they
sit, with large rolls of gold on the table be-
fore them, marking down with dot the
winning colors, or numbers, and stalking 20
or 80 napoleons Oh every turn. Ladies pre-
dominate among the regular gamblers, many
Of them young and pretty, though not all of
them, fancy, strictly correct in their ways. |
Many people speak of the eagerness depicted
on every face, the anxious look, the obvious |
despair; but cannot say have noticed any
thing ofthe sort. What strikes me rather is |
the stolid Indifference with which every one |
Of them seems TO win or lose couple of
hundred pounds, or SO on each throw of the |
pea - though II did not ip the least matter
TO them whether they or the bank took up
the money. think they are mostly rich |
people who can afford to throw away thou
sands, and who throw them away carelessly |
for the sake of the small modicum of excite
ment which the uncertainty yields to their
iaded palates. You must remember that |
since Hamburg aud Baden-Baden were sup
pressed, Monaco concentrates upon itself the
whole gambling strength of Europe Bel
grapia.