The Money Spinner by Xan Fielding

The Money Spinner

Monte Carlo Casino

by Xan Fielding

Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1977, ISBN 0297772015, black and white photographic plates, hardcover, dustjacket

Very Good Condition, minor edge and shelf wear, no inscriptions, a little foxing and marking to endpapers, price-clipped dustjacket shows a little edge and shelf wear, with a little rubbing and bumping, small tear to top front  (see photographs)

“Monte Carlo, the most famous gambling establishment in the world, started just over a century ago as a modest concern founded on a bar rock in a bankrupt principality.  The speed and brilliance of its success was due almost entirely to the genius of Francois Blanc, who in 1863 formed a company to exploit the concession he had obtained from the Prince of Monaco.  Where earlier concessionaires had come to grief he, with the advantage of experience and acute business sense, went from strength to strength.
Monte Carlo’s heyday coincided with La Belle Epoque, the Edwardian Era in England.  Gambling had become a fashionable pastime even for ladies of the highest society, and amongst those who thronged the tables were to be seen crowned heads of Europe and their illustrious mistresses, American millionaires and Persian princes.  Transported to Monte Carlo in special trains equipped with card-rooms and writing-saloons, the guests were accommodated in luxury hotels and entertained in a lavish theatre designed by the architect of the Paris opera house.  Stories of fabulous wins and losses began to circulate, and, of course, myths arose such as “The Man Who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo’…”