1949

“Eight the hard way!” “It’s the Big Dick!” “Next shooter, please!” “Seven, you lose!”

When translated into the French language, these common phrases shouted by stickmen during craps lose their pizazz and bite, their je ne sais quoi, so to speak: “Dix difficile!” “C’est le gros Richard!” “Au suivant, s’il vous plaît!” “Le sept est perdant.”

This was the quandary Louis Ceresol faced when he set out to import the American dice game to the Casino de Monte-Carlo in Monaco in 1949. “C’est impossible,” the director of gambling said, referring to achieving a similar effect in the language of love. Ultimately, Ceresol opted to have his croupiers banter in English.

After all, he was instituting craps at the 80-year-old gambling house primarily for its American patrons, who were more familiar with it than with the French games it offered then: single-zero roulette, baccarat, chemin de fer and a high-low card game.

“Too often, Ceresol says, the American tourist comes into the Monte Carlo casino with his hands in his pocket and goes out with them still in his pocket,” reported the Nevada State Journal (Feb. 20, 1949).

The casino operation needed reviving after losing $450,000 (about $4.6 million today) in fiscal year 1947-1948. Ceresol hoped its American guests and craps would be the antidote, as about 200,000 tourists from the United States were expected to visit Europe in the coming year.

Casino de Monte-Carlo representatives, Albert Jauffret, left, and Louis Ceresol, intently view a dice polishing machine

Nevada Delivers Model

To learn the ins and outs of craps, Ceresol and his associate, head croupier Albert Jauffret, visited the States in February for a firsthand education. Their first stop was Las Vegas, Nevada, specifically the Flamingo.

“I am here to be taught the new dignity of modern gambling,” Ceresol said (Reno Evening Gazette, Feb. 15, 1949).

Next was Reno, Nevada, where they spent time at the Golden and other major gambling clubs. With a tape recorder and movie camera in hand, they recorded numerous games to later use to train their croupiers.

While in Nevada, Ceresol placed an order with George R. Weinbrenner, president of B.C. Wills & Co., a Detroit-based gambling equipment manufacturer, for a craps layout called the Improved Idaho Style Double Side Dealer.

Can’t Get Enough

The next stop for Ceresol and Jauffret was Sun Valley, Idaho. Subsequently, the duo continued their craps tutorial, stopping in numerous U.S. cities, including Boise, Idaho; Los Angeles, California; El Paso, Texas; Chicago, Illinois; Detroit, Michigan; and Cincinnati, Ohio. In doing so, they took in numerous games, many operated illegally, and even spotted some occasional cheating, Ceresol said. The Monte Carlo representatives arrived about a month later than originally planned in Jersey City, New Jersey, from where they set sail to Europe.

“They have wired home that they are bringing home the doctrine of the hard eight, the boxcars, Petit Joseph, come betting and the field,” reported Bob Considine (Stars & Stripes, May 28, 1949).

Sources

Photo from LIFE magazine, March 28, 1949

1840s-Today

Gambler Francois Blanc, at his casino in Bad Homburg, Germany, introduced roulette in the early 1840s with only 0 and no 00 on the wheel and table layout, a choice he stuck with when he assumed control of the Monte-Carlo in Monaco two decades later. This roulette version became the European standard.

In contrast, American roulette games contained both 0 and 00, which afforded casinos about a 5.26 percent advantage.

The European version reduced the house’s edge by as much as half, and because players stood a greater chance of winning with no 00 involved, it grew much more popular.

Photos from Wikimedia Commons: by Betzaar.com, European Roulette and American Roulette

Casino de Monte-Carlo – La Salle Schmitt

1880

British and French patrons crowded the Casino de Monte-Carlo, games were in full operation and large sums of money sat on the tables. It was a typical Saturday night in spring at the Monaco institution. 

Around 11 p.m., a tremendous explosion wracked one of the gambling rooms, throwing people to the floor, extinguishing most of the lights and smashing the windows, chandeliers, clocks and mirrors. Many people fainted. Others sustained cuts and scratches on their hands and faces from falling, broken glass.

“A wild panic took possession of the crowd. A scene of blind, chaotic confusion and turmoil followed,” reported Ohio’s Van Wert Bulletin (April 30, 1880).

In the rush to flee the terror, the frantic mob knocked down and trampled people.

One eyewitness described the pandemonium as:

“A number of women were sprawling in hysterics; a few others had really fainted and looked ghastly through their powder; chairs were overturned, metal was bent into contortions and mirrors were in fragments; there were bleeding croupiers carrying away the bank in hot haste; Frenchwomen gesticulating and screaming, and Englishwomen pale and excited. Altogether I never saw a scene to compare with it in bustle, terror and confusion, even on the stage” (The Daily Star—Ohio, June 30, 1880).

What Had Happened

Later, when the damage was assessed, it was discovered that numerous people suffered serious injuries, but no one died.

The cause of the blast was a dynamite cartridge that some thieves placed under a mantel clock to create a disturbance significant enough to allow them to rob the casino successfully. The crooks stole the gold and bank notes lying on the game tables, 150,000 francs’ worth (about $592,500 today).

Four men, presumably the criminals, mugged a guest, according to one account. If the perpetrators had intended to plunder the safe, too, they failed.

“Had the explosive charge been somewhat larger, the consequences would have been most disastrous,” according to London, England’s Magnet (May 3, 1880).  

During the commotion, many of the floor employees stayed put.

“They went on dealing, playing, raking in the stakes, twirling the roulette wheel, and keeping a careful eye on the treasures in the centre of each table,” noted London’s Daily News (April 27, 1880).

Just how bold was the crime for the time period?

“There have been many plots and tricks devised to rob the Monte Carlo gaming establishment, but in audacity and success this last one eclipses any of its predecessors,” reported the Van Wert Bulletin (April 30, 1880).

Sources

The heyday of the Monte Carlo casino resort in Monaco was The Roaring Twenties, but that was due in large part to the solid foundation laid by François Blanc decades earlier, who stepped in after its seven initial, turbulent years.

The casino actually began in 1856 as two different gambling houses that later were merged into one. Various owners and cash flow problems plagued the enterprise until Blanc, in 1863, acquired the exclusive right to offer games of chance in Monaco for the next half-century. He’d successfully run a casino in Bad Homburg, Germany for more than 20 years.

Blanc’s successful vision for Monte Carlo was to offer an array of sought-after amenities, to be enjoyed all in one facility. 

“The Monte Carlo casino-resort had emerged as the world’s gambling playground of choice — the only place for hundreds of miles to play legally at cards, dice and wheels. After people lost enough money, they came for glamour and luxury, gambling was secondary,” wrote Mark Braude in Making Monte Carlo: A History of Speculation and Spectacle.

When Blanc died in 1877, his secretary, Count Antoine Nicolas Bertora, ran the gambling for the next 17 years.  Subsequently, Blanc’s daughter, Camille Blanc, assumed control until she fell ill.

By 1922, however, the casino desperately needed another visionary. It was failing in the wake of World War I due to inflation, austerity measures, restricted travel and an influenza pandemic.

Enter Rene Leon. Similar to Blanc, Leon reinvented Monte Carlo by offering amenities and events that catered to the whims and desires of the period’s trendsetters, such as F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald. Thus, according to Braude, the casino experienced “its Jazz Age heyday as the infamous playground of the rich.”

For a glimpse inside this legendary Monaco gambling house, here are 3 artistic portrayals, presented in order of creation:

The Casino at Monte Carlo / Rien ne va plus! (Nothing goes wrong!), 1890 (oil on canvas)

French painter, Jean-Georges Béraud, created this oeuvre at age 45. He’s renowned for his numerous paintings depicting life in Paris and the nightlife of high society during the Belle Époque.

At the Roulette Table in Monte Carlo, 1892 (oil on canvas)

Norwegian artist, Edvard Munch, painted this piece at age 29 after having spent much time playing and becoming obsessed with roulette in Monte Carlo. “Once you’ve penetrated the enchanted castle of Monte Carlo you’re already bewitched — and you’ll return — you have to,” he noted in his journal (Making Monte Carlo, April 2016).

Gamblers in the Casino at Monte-Carlo, 1910 (color lithograph)

French artist, Georges Goursat, known as Sem, also famous during the Belle Époque, is known for his caricatures, many of prominent French socialites. He crafted this piece at age 47.

Popular Subject

Over the years, the Monte Carlo, inside and out, inspired various types of art. Here are the links to 4 more portrayals:

1) Sketch of Gambling at the Monte Carlo Casino, 1920s, by Wynn

2) Dream of Monte Carlo, 1930, by Max Beckmann

3) Gambling in Monte Carlo, On the French, 1934, by Everett

4) Casino at Monte Carlo, 1969, by LeRoy Neiman

Sources

Photos from Wikimedia Commons

The HMS Sickle

1943

The British submarine, HMS Sickle, fired a succession of torpedoes during World War II, in May, sinking an enemy vessel in Cape Ferrat, southeastern France. But one of the missiles hit a cliff in Monaco, and on exploding, it blew out the top windows of the Casino de Monte-Carlo.

Consequently, the ship’s captain became known as “the man who broke the bank at Monte Carlo,” and an ace of spades was added to the Sickle’s Jolly Roger.

Photo from Wikimedia Commons: by Stewart Bale, Ltd., Liverpool