WHAT IT IS Beating the odds to defeat the House
WHY YOU WON’T DO IT Gambling is a mug’s game
It is a simple truth that you never meet a poor casino owner and rarely meet a wealthy gambler. And aside from Las Vegas, there is nowhere in the world quite so known for gambling as Monte Carlo in Monaco, with its beautiful casino basking in the Mediterranean sun. So what are your best options for making the croupiers weep?
The original ‘man who broke the bank at Monte Carlo’ was one Joseph Jagger, a Briton who in the 1870s made hay after spotting a roulette wheel with a bias towards certain numbers. If you hope to follow in Jagger’s footsteps, you can generally start gambling from 2 p.m., but there are certain rules of admission, principally that you must be over 18 years of age and should dress smartly. There’s a modest admission charge, and various games on offer.
As with any form of gambling you should never bet more than you are prepared to lose – it’s easy to get caught up in the moment, but you may regret it in the morning. The rules for roulette are simple: you bet on a number or set of numbers (from 1 to 36) and if a spun ball lands in the corresponding slot of the roulette wheel, you win. If you bet on a single number, the odds are obviously 35-1. Other types of bet offer odds on a gradually reducing scale. Simple enough? In fact, roulette is widely regarded as one of the most difficult games to win – not least because the wheel includes a zero slot that tips the odds in the house’s favour by more than 5 per cent!
Most experts believe that you have a better chance of beating the house at the blackjack table. In this game, you’re initially dealt two cards, and your aim is to get a total as close to 21 as possible without exceeding it (‘going bust’). You then have to decide whether to risk adding cards to the hand and increase its value – you win if your hand beats the dealer’s without going bust, or if the dealer himself exceeds 21. There are various clever rules of thumb for working out if the odds favour you ‘hitting’ (adding another card) or ‘standing’ in various scenarios, and if you can remember them all, they may tip the odds slightly in your favour.
Of course, if you’ve got the nerve for it, there is also card counting, a test of memory and mental arithmetic that involves keeping track of the dealing in any card game to work out whether a high or low card is likely to be dealt next.