Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-07-15
ALL LOSE At MONTE CARLO
STORIES ABOUT BREAKING THE
BANKS ARE FICTIoNS.
Sensational Suicide Of Gamblers
Ruined at the Tables-Innova-
ton to Benefit the Croupier.
From Cassell's Saturday Journal.

From CasselIs Saturday Journal
All the stories about breaking the bank
at Monte Carlo are bright little fictions.
No croupier has ever stopped a table for
more than a couple of minutes-just long
enough to obtain fresh supply of money.
And now 1T is less likely than ever. This
season 1.-The bank has instituted an limo
walton which. it is estimated. will result
in an additional income of 5,O0O.OOoO
francs-and has increased the number of
suicides.
There have been half hundred Of these
unfortunates. the most sensational being
that of julius kardos. Il young Hungarian
artist from Budapest. He had lost all
his money at the tables and the Casino
management offered him ESQ if he would
leave the place. This he refused to do,
borrowed G10O. and decided to try his
luck for the last time.
Loses Last Bet, Ends Life.
Seated between two women, one the
daughter of well known American doc
tor and the other a French woman, he
lost coup after coup. When the last gold
piece went he drew IA revolver and shot
himself. The American woman jumped
up with a Mortified cry and the French
woman, across whose lap his body had
fallen, tainted away. An hour later the
roulette game was going usual.
And how do they play roulette at Monte
Carlo? and what is the secret of the
Casinos big success this season? Roulette
on its face is a fair game. Between two
long "tahleaux." or tables is the roulette
wheel-a horizontally revolving. hollow in
verted cone. with thirty-seven compart-
ments around the outer edge. An ivory
ball is sent whirling in groove around
the wheel. One OF the compartments is
mum bered o. The others are numbered
from ] to 36.
The ball, after certain revolutions, drops
into one of these compartments. If it
drops into q. the wheel takes all the
stakes that have been deposited upon the
various numbers. If IT drops into COM
partment No II. for instance. the player
who has staked any given sum on No. IL
receives from the bank thirtysix times
this amount, and the stakes of the other
players are confiscated.
"House' Institutes New Wheels.
In previous years good many fortunes
have been won by reason of the mex
plicable sequence in which certain num-
bers invariably turn up. The habitue Of
Monte Carlo knows we'll that after the
ball has fallen on zero one or other Of
two numbers will usually gain. either p
or 8. And SO on But now things are
changed
October l last, just prior to the opening
Of the season. the Casino management
put new wheels in place. and these new
wheels have won enormously "for the
house" throughout the present season.
How is it? IT'S simplicity itself. On
the four sides Of the wheel are four little
metallic cones known in the slang Of the
game as mules ears" The man at
the wheel in spinning the ball aims to
strike a different mules ear"-one of the
four. thus diverting the ball from its
natural course. But the system player
long ago managed to overcome the four
little cones. and in time. no matter which
of the four mules ears caught the
circling ball. and diverted l. the systems
won with surprising regularity
Well. on the new wheels installed this
season they had placed eight mules
ears instead of four-instead of four
corners Of the circle there were eight;
and months passed before some Of the
players discovered the difference between
the old wheels and the new. So this sea-
son all the old systems took wings. all the
previous calculations of the professionals
were for naught and the Casino has won
amazingly.