GAMBLING AT MONTE CARLO.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 4, Issue 1256, 16 December 1882, Page 2

GAMBLING AT MONTE CARLO.

' That persona should play at Monte Carlo tablos for their amusement, just as they might pay fur a stall at the opora, I can understand; but that anyone should pass hours risking money at a game of pure chance, with a percentage against uim uuder the impression that, he is likely to do a good stroke of business, surpasses my underatandintr. Attrenteet-quarantethe the profit of the bank is 1 per cent. ; at roulette it is 3 per cent on the number and 1 \ per cent, on. the simple chances. Now, let us suppose that a person with a capital of 1,000 napoleons pluya fur ton days, ten hours per.diem, nt trent-el-quarante, and that his average slake is ten napoleons. There are 100 coups every hour; he, therefore, would oxpoie eaeh day 10,000 napoleons to the privilege of the bank; or, in other words, pay the banker 100 napoleona for the priviledge of allowing him to play at even ohances with him, Supposing, therefore.-that his luok were precisely the same as that of tho bank, at the end of the ten days the latter would have absorbed his 1,000 napoleons. It would of courao make no mathematical difference how he varieil.'ihb amount staked each coup; the averugod amount would he the total staked during the day, divided by the nimibor of coups, : I make nut that tho profit of one roulette table at Monte Carlo is worthj on a roodevnto estimate, per annum, The banks average percentage is 2, The game is played for twelve hours each day, and there are 100 coups each hour. The average atakod by the players collectively on each coup is probably a good deal more than twenty napoleons; hut let us coll it twenty napolenns Thus 24,000 napoleona would be staked enoh day, giving to the bank a percentage of 480 napoleons per diem, and as time are 365 days in the year the amount obtained from players in a year from one roulette table must be 175,200 napoleons, or 1140,160. As ut nutter of fact, I bnlieve that this figure i« below the annual gross profit, for a great many more persons stake on the numbers (which give a higher percentage) than on tho simple chances, and the average total of the stakes of the players on each coup is more than twenty napoleons,