Casino de Monte-Carlo
Online Roulette Guide
This exclusive gaming establishment is the spiritual home of roulette. If one casino embodies the game- it’s this one. It´s even helped to develop famous mathmatical statistical theories through its roulette tables. The Karl Pearson roulette saga and his Chi-Square Test for Goodness of Fit are a case in point. We kid you not!
The Casino de Monte-Carlo is unique in more ways than one- with it’s spectacular setting, history and the prestige of the building itself (it is one of several glamour casinos on the Continent, the other being Casino Baden Baden), it is unique for the incredible diversity of its table games, especially roulette. You´ll likely to be bumping into the same punters that you might meet at Les Ambassadeurs or the Ritz in London, especially on the private tables.
If you are a fan of roulette, this is a place that you’ll need to visit at some point! Once you have been here, you´ll find casinos in Las Vegas like the Venetian a little on the tacky side!
Tables include European Roulette and English Roulette.
The game starts when the croupier announces “Faites vos jeux” (“Place your bets”). You then place your bets.
On the European roulette tables, you can then call out bets (see out section on Call Bets). On the English Roulette tables, the only call bets you can request are Thirds (Tiers), Orphans (Orphelins) and Neighbors of Zero (Voisins du Zero). You must place your chips on the green baize of the betting area.
The croupier will spins the ball in the opposite direction of the spinning wheel, and will call out “Rien ne va plus” (“No more bets”) when the ball is about to come to a rest. You must stop laying down bets (any bet beyond this point is invalid and is known as Past Posting.
The everyone holds their breath, crosses their fingers and stares at the wheel as the ball slowly comes to a rest. The croupier will then announce the winning number. Losing bets are raked in and winning bets are paid out.
History of the Casino de Monte-Carlo
The history of the Principality of Monaco is intertwined with that of the Monte Carlo Casino. The casino is owned and run by the Société des bains de mer de Monaco, a public company which counts the Monaco government and the ruling family as major shareholders. It has been popular with Casino Whales for decades.
It was Princess Caroline, wife of Prince Florestan who first came up with the idea of building a casino in the Principality to help finance the House of Grimaldi.
In 1854, Florestan’s son Charles, and next in line to become Prince of Monaco, hired a French team to build a spa, a casino and luxury villas. Aubert and Langlois opened the first casino in 1856 once they had been granted a concession by the ruling family.
Although it struggled at first, due to poor communications with France, by the end of the 19th Century it was thriving and remains an important source of income today for Monaco and the Grimaldis.
The casino is the source of many legends and fables, particularly where its roulette tables are concerned. In 1873, Joseph Jagger took the casino to the cleaners when he spotted a bias in one of the casino’s roulette wheels. Charles Wells was another high roller gambler who “broke the bank” of Monaco. More recently, 3 men from the UK became famous for their Monte Carlo Casino scam when they managed to steal €3.7 million by swapping chips bought outside that were worth €10 for €1000 casino chips.
Gambler’s Fallacy
The Casino de Monte-Carlo is also famous for cleaning up on a very long streak of blacks on 18 August 1913. The players at the time were betting that the streak had to end, with the false notion that independent chance events must even out (the gambler’s fallacy). That day the ball fell into black numbers 26 times in a row, and as the streak went on gamblers lost millions betting on the opposite colour, thinking that their odds were better with the length of the run.