Semi-weekly herald., 1909-03-08

~ - A''-NAfi31hi Pia9ti OH lt
bers is sufficient OF itself to attract
the attention of the whole table, If
1t is only for few coups, but for
player to bet maximums steadily hour !
after hour Is enough to place him In
the limelight for the whole Casino |
and to bring down upon him the most |
careful scrutiny OF the agents of the |
BY making careful notes of the mum
bers that came out and those that he
bet upon the first thing discovered
that he persistently followed mum
bers that had already appeared. so
to those that believe in betting on
numbers which have not shown at all,
the maturity of the chances"
Two theories were advanced to ac
he noted some peculiarity or irreg-
ularity In the wheel itself which would
tend to make certain numbers come
oftener than others But this is prac.
tically impossible, although the idea
has furnished more than one imagina-
tive story teller with a plot.
A well-known English writer has a
Monte Carlo story based ON the the
DRY that a wheel at one of the tables
was badly constructed and had ten
dency 10 stop the ball on certain mum
bers. The gang that had noted this
popularity went to the same table day
after day and bet on those numbers
until the management bought the Sc
cret for fabulous sum.
Now" said the informant, "such a
story is simply absurd and shows the
ignorance of things behind the scenes
at the Casino. Not only is every
wheel absolutely perfect, being care
fully tested by the most delicate in
struments, but the same wheel is
never used twice.
| "If you were to lift one of the
wheels at Monte Carlo off its spindle
you would see that it is made OF a
i number of interchangeable pieces or
segments, held in place by machine
screws. After each days play every
wheel in the rooms is carried to the
workshops in the basement and taken
apart and every wheel is reassembled
In different manner, SO that you
never see the same wheel two days
in succession at Monte Carlo"
1 .
Englishman's success was that he was
in collusion with certain croupiers.
but the impossibility of such thing
is evident. to any one who knows
anything of roulette, unless the wheel
itself is crooked. In roulette the
croupier is powerless. In games like
bacearat, it is true, collusion with the
dealer may be the rule rather than
the exception, but roulette wheel
cannot be handled like pack of cards
The men who roll the balls in the
wheels at Monte Carlo are all carefully
trained in a room set apart for that
purpose in the basement of the build
ing. There they are taught the proper
speed at which to spin the wheel and
Low to throw the ball. 1t is an in
variable rule that the wheel shall
never be allowed to come completed,
TO rest, and that having been spur
in one direction 1t shall always be
spun in the other direction for the
next coup, the ball being always
thrown in direction contrary to that
taken by the wheel
When these men are sufficiently ex
pert to manage the ball and wheel
with precision they are tried at the
playing table TO see If they have the
requisite steadiness of nerve. The
management went over this system OF
training the men with view to dis,
covering If possible wether 1t offered
any clew TO the Englishman's success.
ful methods.
1t took some time TO nnu out what
his system was, and ever since then
1t has been rule that each man who
rolls shall stay on duty for a very
limited time, usually forty minutes. At
the end of that time he is promptly
relieved. 1t is probable that not one
person in million who goes to Monte
Carlo knows the Englishman's system
or has the nerve to play it; but there
Is no relaxation of the precautionary
methods adopted by the management
TO protect the game against the only
thing that ever beat 1t.
The immediate result OF the change
was that the Englishman's winnings
were reduced very considerably and
| That he soon tired of the game. proba.
bly, because he was not a gambler by
nature but was simply making a lit.
Tie experiment with an idea of his
own for flier. For several wears
after his first visit he used to drop
into the Casino now and then lust for
flutter, as he expressed 1t. and al.
ways came away a winner.
There are still some people who
play his system at Monte Carlo. and
Tor those that have the nerve to stick
TO 1t 1t is still winner. although
only In n small ,,,.,