The times., 1901-06-02
RELATED BY A CROUPIER
Startling Incidents Occurring
Around the Gambling Table.
Wonderful Profits of the Bank MT
Monte CnrIo-The Persistence with
which Many Players Pursue Their
Own Ruin-A Bank Robbers Arrest

4 have been for many years connected
| in one capacity or another, but principal
! ly as a croupier. wit - several of the gam
/ bling casinos o. Europe" said a croupier
Who until recently. presided at one of
! the roulette tables at a famous Conti-
mental public gambling establishment.
! Few people have much idea of the
enormous amount of money that has been
earned by the various gambling establish
ments In the early days the annual pro-
/ fits of the gambling house at Aix-la- Cha
| pelle were said to be e14,OO0 At HON.
| burg the annual expense of the Kursaal
| were 9l0.OO0 and yet there remained a
very handsome profit, though 1 forget the
! amount, neither can l now recall the
| profits of Baden-Baden, but as the COM
| pany which rented the CCnversationhaus
/ (as the gambling establishment was cali
| ed) paid about el1.0OO year for it and
contracted to spend, besides. e25,OO0 in
| improving and maintaining the premises
and grounds, equaling e36,OO0, and still
| show a big profit you can guess the gross
takings must have been pretty heavy.
AT Spa (where the gambling establish
ments at one time belonged to the Bishop
of Licge) the profits were over $4,000 per
annum At Ostend the club in a season
of three months managed, after paying a
tax of e70000 to the municipality to make
| a net profit of e2S0,O0O.
The splendid revenue earned by the
Monte Carlo tables has now become a
proverb- That these public gambling ca
sinos are productive of considerable harm
1t would be idle to deny. AS a matter
of fact, many more cases of suicides,
murder, and scandal occur at the va
rious gambling resorts than ever reach
q af on fov +fa
ton of most of the gambling tables ex-
pend a princely sum annually in subsi-
dizing large number of European and
American newspapers; in fact, all that
they can, in order to prevent such hor-
rors from being reported
THE Dapers thus subsidized are also
freely used for occasional puffs and para
graphs relating to sensational and often
imaginary 'breakings' of the bank In
deed, you may be surprised to hear that
quite a number of mushroom journals
are continually being started for the mere
purpose of securing the retaining fee
paid by the administration | could tell
you the name of one little paper the PRO-
prietor of which was paid by the admin
istration' of a certain gambling casino
100000 francs (e4000 to keep it in a friend
ly frame of mind at a rather critical time.
papers the administration have other
methods for making the best of tragic
occurrences.
AT one OF the gambling towns where
I was employed there were three doctors
dissipated. ignorant rascals, with no prac-
tice and whose names would in England
have long since been struck off the 'Medi-
cal Register'-who were secretly and un-
officially paid handsome salaries by the
administration for rendering certain pro-
fessional services as occasion required IT,
for instance. some ruined gamester, after
losing HIS last louis, shot himself in quiet
corner of the grounds, two of the doctors
would be sent for and would. in a num-
Der of instances, certify the death as
apoplexy. syncope, heart disease.
'aneurism,' or 'sunstroke' and thus the
Inconvenience of an inquest and undesira-
bic publicity was avoided. One of these
rogues. l heard. was paid e700 a year.
Murders, too, were. whenever circum-
stances made it possible, either similarly
hushed up or reported as occurring some
where else. l remember such case some
years ago The only son of a wealthy
English merchant won about e4,000 at the |
trente-et-quarante table Instead of leav- |
ing it in the care of the administration,
which he could have done, he insisted on /
taking his winnings home with him to |
his hotel Before he had got very far he /
was robbed of the whole sum and knocked |
on the head.
And in what form do you suppose the |
news reached the public? Why, in this: /
The unfortunate young man, who had |
been on a Notwithstanding expedition, |
was found lying at the bottom of a preci-
pice with his head broken. He had ap-
parently missed his footing and thus met /
his untimely end That was the way it I
appeared in those papers that mentioned
1t at all. AS a matter of fact, the poor
fellows body had been surreptitiously
conveyed from the spot where it was first
discovered to the supposed scene of the
accident, the better to substantiate the
explanation given.
1T is astonishing how the gambling
habit dominates some people. knew one
lady as an habitue of the rooms at Monte
Carlo with whom gambling became such
an absorbing mania that she made several
applications to magistrates and also TO
the resident doctor of a lUnatic asylum, !
and used considerable efforts to get her
self placed under restraint as being the
only means by which she could be pre-
vented from gambling. Not being sue
cessful, she managed to get incarcerated
in another way, by forging check for
800, though she had no need of the mon
ey, and she got two years imprisonment
Her story was fully told in court, which
probably accounted for her not getting
a longer sentence.
THE persistence with which a born
gambler will pursue his own ruin is eX-
Many years ago major in
the army who had Just inherited &25,co
came to Hamburg. Being aware what an
gambler he was, he took the
precaution of paying three months mad
vance for his board and lodging at the
hotel; and. furthermore, handed TO the
landlord G5,000 which the latter was in
structed to hold in trust for him and on
no consideration whatever to repay to
him until he had returned to England. no
matter how much he might entreat him.
He began at the trente-et-quarante table
by winning $4,000.
Next day ne netted G5.0O). Then he
alternated his transactions between
trente-et-quarante and the roulette ta-
bles, but the refait and zero occurred so
frequently that in few days his capital
was reduced from Gl6,000 to los. and
finally to nothing. Then he went TO the
landlord of his hotel and ordered begged
and entreated him to give him his G5, 900.
The landlord refusing, he went and bor-
rowed $50 from friend, lost it, then
went and sold his watch and chain, Jew
elry. and all his clothes except what he
stood up in, returned to the tables with
e40 and again lost every farthing.
The hotel landlord being still ::...>1--
able, the gambler got up in the hight
broke open the money till in the bar |
helped himself to the money therein
about G15-depositiug in the till his | .
[, and letter authorizing the landlord
to reCoup himself from the E5 600: and |
and as the landlord refused to give up
his 10000 until he reached England he !
departed by the first train available the {
andlord taking his ticket for him.
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