From: joshua geller <joshua@cae.retix.com>
Date: Mon, 18 Apr 94 09:07:00 PDT
To: sandfort@crl.com
Subject: Re: Laundering money through commodity futures
Message-ID: <199404181606.JAA01108@sleepy.retix.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



> C'punks,

> On Mon, 18 Apr 1994, tim werner wrote:
> > I believe Eric's point was a little off, anyway.  The bank at Monte Carlo
> > was broken using exactly the method which he was attempting to discredit.
> > 
> > A man went to the casino with several suitcases full of money and proceeded
> > to play roulette using the progressive betting strategy.  Eventually he
> > broke the bank.  That's when casinos started imposing house limits on the
> > tables.  I don't think this story is apocryphal.
 
> Actually, I think it is.  In all casinos that I've heard about, the "bank"
> is just an amount that each game is allowed to lose in a given period of
> time.  If roulette table #1 has a bank of $10,000 and it loses more than
> that amount, the bettor has "broken" the bank.  Whoopdeedoo.  Great for 
> casino publicity, but not that big a deal for the casino in the overall 
> scheme of things.  It is exactly stories like the one you repeat that 
> keep the rubes coming back to the tables.
 
there was a popular song in the (1910's? 1920's?) called 'the man who
broke the bank at monte carlo' and I do recall reading (in a book of
sports records of all places) that this was based on the exploits of a
real guy (the reason the tale appeared in a book of sports records was
because of the level of endurance the guy showed; he stayed at the table
18 - 24 hours a day while he was gambling). I don't recall any of the 
particulars, or how much he took from the casino (and was it roulette or
baccarat?), or even his name but I am pretty sure this was a true story.

josh