MONTE CARLO BOOM.

Taranaki Daily News, 4 September 1920, Page 11

MONTE CARLO BOOM.

GAMBLING MANIA BEATS ALL RECORDS. WAYS 0? THE PLUNGERS. ■ The receipt,} at the gambling tables of Monte Carlo this year are nearly double what they were just before the war, and the scene in the sporting club of nights was an amazing show of the most extreme fashions and the ' most dazzling jewels of every kind (writes the correspondent of a London journal in May). Extreme fashions are now synonymous with extreme economy of customs. The array of bare backs—"Lo and behijd!" in the current slang—became quite monotonous. Mrs. Langtry was among this crowd, showing a back as generous us the rest. One rapid French girl titillated the jaded interest by having two hearts transfixed by an arrow tattooed on her left shoulder-blade in jade green. THE ROAD TO RUIN. A*s a rule there are three stages in i.he Casino career of the. individual who sets out to despoil M. Blanc. First, he is to be seen staking lavishly with variable luck. It is a curious fact that players often win to begin with, thus being tempted to their eventual destruction. The next stage of the persistent player is that ho is seen planking louis where at j tiio outset he squandered 100-franc plaques, and exeif&isiiig immense caution of choosing sixes or dozens, so as to secure better odds against the table. The last stage of all, his available resources exhauted, he may be seen looking disconsolately over the heads of the players, making imaginary coups—which come on with a much higher percentage of success than real ones. THE ONLY WINNERS IN THE END. So they troop along in relays, full of hope, and so they depart—in the great majority of cases, still fuller of disappointment. Those who win and stop are 'the only ones that live to play'another day. Those who tell you—and they are legion—that they went to Monte Carlo, paid all their expenses through the tables and sent home a tidy sum, may be regarded as the victims' of a harmless, self-consoling hallucination. A wealthy London tobacco merchant, in combination with a leading advertiaeing agent, came, last month to break the bank on the even chances—fouge et noir, pair et impair, passe et manque. They played at separate tables with big piles of 1000-franc notes. When one won at one table the other lost at the ofher, and after a few days they both lost—and stole silently home. NO RING TO THE CHIPS. But, withal, Monte Carlo is not the same as before the war. The substitution of celluloid chips for hard real money, for silver and gold piece's, makes a lot of difference at the tables. The dull clatter of the celluloid that greets the ear instead of the clear ring of the precious metal symbolises the flatness that, despite the display of wealth, pervades the whole place. Only the natural beauties of the surroundings retain their old charm. Aside from the excitement of the tables, the conversation is full of foreboding as to what a desperate pass old Europe seems steadily drifting. No one pretends to see daylight through the clouds of discontent, financial complications and Peace Conference muddling that befog the horizon. But it is not the policy of the Casino to provide any counter-attraction to the Casino except the opera, which can absorb only an insignificant proportion of the crowd who gamble.