Los Angeles herald., 1906-10-10


From the On
"BIack wins sometimes. red often, but
white always"
Thus says M. Blanc, the proprietor CT
Monte Carlo whose name, being trans
lated into English. becomes White. And
he says truly
For the gambler. whatever he be,
monkey or man, cool or crazy, expert
enced or practiced, is foredoomed to
fail
Gambling or not gambling merely is a
matter of knowledge or Ignorance re-
garding the principles Of gambling.
These understood, its occupation Is
gone. It's disappearance Is sure with
the cultivation of the human brain.
Sir Hiram S. Maxim and Mr.. B. See
bohm Downtree of London are two Of
the latest and ablest students OF the the
ory and art of gambling, and these are
the conclusions that their recent re-
searches compel They explain i'm inn
petuous minutae the wonders of rou-
lette, of horse racing and of the stock
exchanges, and for all the conclusion Is
but one.
The even chances. so called because
scribed as q wheel which lies on It's
face with It's center on a fixed pivot
The croupier causes the wheel to re-
volve rapidly about its center and then
jerks a small ivory ball In the opposite
direction around the rim. When the
ball loses its momentum 1t falls into
one of thirty-seven stalls cut into the
surface of the wheel. These stalls are
marked In Irregular order with the
numbers from zero to thirty-six in
elusive, and they are colored alter
nately red and black, except zero, which
has no color.
Per Cent Always Against the Player
The roulette, for example, is de-
a successful bet upon one of them earns
the value of the stake, are red against
black, odd against even, first eighteen
against eighteen. Zero does not belong
to any of these groups. When zero
appears the bank takes half the stakes
and thus on the average gains one-half
in thirty-seven, or 1.S5 per cent on the
even chances. If the gambler bets on
a number and wins, the bank pays him
thirty-flve times his stake, instead Of
thirty-six times, and thus wins on the
average one stake in thirty-seven, or
81 per cent from the numbers. "Trente
ct quarante," a game at cards. is also
played at Monte Carlo There ara
only even chances. The advantage of
the bank, called refait, can be insured
against for l per cent.
These small percentages of from l to
2.7 suffice to bring in an annual profit
of about $6,000,000. This, then, must
nearly be the whole amount taken into
the gambling rooms in the year to be
staked.
If no money were staked twice, but
fresh coins used every time. and the
winnings taken away, the public would
have to produce q sum which has been
estimated at $50, 900, 900 to give the bank
the annual profit of $S,OOOOO00. But mos:
Of the gamblers habitually stake their
winnings until they are lost. And the
bank wins a sum nearly equal to what
the public provides for the purpose of
gambling The action Of the public
affects the proportional but not the
actual loss.
Roulette Players Lose All Money
If fresh money were staked every
time the gamblers loss would be only
IA in 60. Using the same coins over
and over again, they lose 60 in so. The
actual loss is the same in either case,
although the loss in proportion to the
money carried in is extremely different.
The bank is sure to win provided the
stakes are numerous, for in that case
its losses over one even chance will be
DeildHCGu NY ITO Sciltio ONtl NHC OPPOoitS
chances, and the difference between the
two, if loss, will be more than COM
pensated by zero and refait. The cor
rect guesses on the numbers nearly are
equaled by the incorrect, and slight
preponderance in the proportion of one
over the other being, If a loss, more
than liquidated by the banks per-
centage of 81 In the long run the ex-
cess of one color over another is less
than 1.35, OF one number over another,
less than 81.
But suppose the gamblers should not
wage civil war against each other but
should unite against their common foe,
betting continuously on one color, say
red. They gain nothing. Black would
appear as often as red. Their losses on
black would equal their gains on red,
and white (Blanc) would win as much
as ever. AS between the aggregate
public and the bank, the results are the