A roulette croupier receives two hundred and fifty francs a month;
whilst dealers at trente-et-quarante are paid three hundred francs.
The working-day is six hours, in two spells of three hours each; each
man being for three days in succession at one table. Every table is
controlled by six croupiers, a seventh being held in reserve as a
relief.
At the tables the suavity of manner and impartiality of croupiers in
settling disputes is generally above all praise. The difficulties
with which a croupier has to contend are sometimes disturbing in the
extreme, but his decision is final and, as the players know, admits of
no appeal.
Though the tables are surrounded by a mob of persons avid of gain,
yet there are times when winning stakes remain unclaimed for several
_coups_. When this is observed by the croupiers, the money is set
aside for a certain time, after which it goes to swell the funds of
the bank. Odd though it may appear, people very often depart leaving
winnings behind them on the table--a curious case of this once came
under the writer's observation.
A lady, who was leaving Monte Carlo, had been sitting all the morning
at the roulette, trying with little success to get on a run, and at
last left the rooms to go to lunch with the writer, who afterwards,
having escorted her to the hotel to prepare for her journey, strolled
again into the Casino.
Just within the door he was accosted by an excited and voluble
Englishwoman, who explained that the lady (whom she had observed with
the writer) had left two louis on the red when she rose from her chair.
Red had won twice, and the attention of the croupiers had been drawn to
the unclaimed eight louis, for which the speaker had then assumed the
responsibility, saying she was to play them for a lady who had gone out
of the rooms. She had then proceeded to play up the eight louis till
they had become sixty-four, when, at her request, the whole sum was
taken off the table. The _chef de partie_ meanwhile declared that the
bank would not part with the money till the owner of the original two
louis returned.
After waiting for some time, the woman (who frankly said that she hoped
to receive a share of the money for having played it up) became much
perturbed at not knowing where to find the only owner whom the bank
would recognise, and the advent of the writer, to whom she explained
the whole thing, was therefore most opportune. The lady when told that
sixty-four louis was waiting for her was naturally much pleased, and
on drawing the sum on her way to the station, very cheerfully gave the
woman a third of what had been won.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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