The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-06-21
PLAYING AT MONTE CARLO.
Tricks Of the Trade Which Allow
Small Show for the Player.

Things Are Done the Great Estab-
ishment-A System Which Leaves
Little to Chance and Balks Too
Much Good Luck.
From the London Pail Mall Gazette.
"Another'fxed item on the debit side
of the account is the 100000 to the sub
yentioned press" Thus Dalziel's, few
days on the balance sheet of Monte Carlo :;
the phrase, though laconic, contains
worlds of estions, and may be ampli-
flied ad infnitum.
To begin with, 'subventioned press"
should read French press, - or, to be more
precise, the Riviera Marseilles Bordeaux
Paris press there might be few stray
and all butworthless correspondents, who
are occasionally "persuaded, but they
figure otherwise in the budget, and the
bulk of the R80, 600 goes to the French
press. The bargains concluded, with
newspapers are various and peculiar;
some are paid for extolling the delights of
the place-anybody would do that gratis
others get subsidy for paragraphing
and magnifying the winners of punters;
others, yet, receive hush money for ignor-
ing fatal accidents; finally, some are paid
simply to hold their peace. and never
mention Monte Carlo, either for good or
for evil
But there is one general cue for all
specialists" and that is to argue how it
is preferable to gamble in such a recog-
nlzed Institution as the Cercle de Etran-
gers than in clubs or even among friends
AT Monte Carlo, at least, you are told,
you have to deal with unadulterated
chance, and the only advantage of the
banker lies in his greater staying power,
otherwise in his ineXhaustible money bag
Now, everywhere elSe-ay, even at the
Cercle-you meet with Gus toners who are
not above giving the chance a chance;n
you have to play sar parole, and as often
as not parole is all you win, and so on
Nothing of the sort can happen at Monte
Carlo, where you play money against
money, and not des beaux Louis contre dies
prunes; where you-can get even part of
your losses back-the sO-called vianque-
in fine, you are persuaded that every
thing IS fair and square before the man
who wants to break the bank at Monte
Carlo.
Now this, with all Difference to M. Au-
reIlen Scholl, is very amiable nonsense
Not only fairness and squareness and
Monte Carlo do not-liye at the same ad-
dress, as the. rench say, but the fact is
that nobody is allowed to win seriously,
ana that nowhere else are the chances of
the punters reduced to such minimum.
IL Is not that cheating as one imagines it
ls-carried on to any extent at the Cercle
des Etrangers; it is rather an elaborate
system, aiming at leaving as little as posi-
bic to chance pure and simple, and at in
terfering with luck too persistent The
details of this system are as curious as
they are little known, and short expose
may not be without interest to the read
ers of the Pail Mall Gazette.
The police of the place is so admirably
organized that few hours after any
Dody's arrival the name of the visitor is
already reported TO the admins tration of
the Cercle, with, of course, the address
and various details, such as the amount of
luggage, the appearance, the price of the
roomlor pension taken, etc. Thesadetails
are all-Important, to the inspecteuradu via
tique-a venerable-looking old scoundrel
whose duty it Is to repatriate broken
down gamblers Anybody who, has lost
every penny he brought with him can, on
application, either recover 10 per cent. of
his losses or, if the sum is small his rail-
way fare to the extent of from "a to e6 is
paid. This last is called the viatique. and
is given against regular l O u, which
has to be refunded before the recipient
can be admitted again to the gambling
house. We may mention, en- PEASANT
that no less than 100000 is distributed in
this guise every. year, and that no less
than 100000 is actually paid back.
The information of the police in and
outside the building is so precise that it
is no use for anybody to pretend to have
lost $1,000 if he has lost only ESQ; the
statements accepted with great polite
ness, only one is asked to walk along the
rooms with an inspector and then to wait
40 inc -. an
turn and tell you not only how much.
more or less, you have lost but he will tell
you what your game was-single or null
tiple chances, a ''martingale,'' or at ran
dom; and, II you protest, he will add yet
some more information. such as, "You
have no luggage; you dine at cheap
places or ''you live at a cheap pension. ),
etc The above only goes to prove how
carefully everything and everybody is
watched-the walters, the hotel proprie-
tors, the railway officials, and the crou-
piers living at boarding houses, all
send in the results Of their observations
every day.
Now, as to the precautions against OBJ
stinate good luck for punters. The first
is in the fact that the gambling house is a
cercle, club, to which admittance is
gained on presenting a card issued by the
administration for one day only This
card has TO be personally renewed every
day. and nothing is easier than5to refuse
inns TO TOO persistent winner. 7 No rea-
son Is youchsafed for the refusal, and the
stan of "checkers-out'l within easy reach
looks too convincing to attempt intrusion
or arguments. Should the Objectionable
punter be too big game for such a sum
mary proceeding, there is quite an army
OF agents proyocatelrs, both men and
women, around each table and thew, ac-
cordlng to instructions, pick up quarrel
with the lucky player-g generally over a
stake-a row ensues, both parties are
chucked out, and then the inspector ex-
plains that the rule of the cercle is not to
admit again those who make disturb
ance and spoil the partie Recrimina-
lions are useless, and as whatever law or
Justice there is at Monte Carlo is in the
hands OF the "Societe deS Bains de Mer''
Just as the police, there is neither protec-
ton nor appeal.
IL must, however, be explained here
That these extreme measures apply only
TO successful "martingalistes" -system
players or to lightning" punters gam
piers who come every day for q few min
uteS, stake three times some maXimums,
WIN by some remarkable fiuke, and 20
away These are the most hated, if only
because OF the superstition a TO playing
sur la tete du pOnte-that is, following en-
masse the stakes of a lucky player There
have have been cases where successive
banks have been broken thus A roulette
bank starts generally with from e2 900 to
4S.OOO, according TO season, and the bank