Attempted assassin Robert-Francois Damiens is drawn and quartered on the Place de Greve in 1757. Public domain/BNF/Gallica. But despite the square’s innocuous appearance, and the fact that it represents one of the centres of democratic civility and public life in modern Paris, it has a remarkably dark history– one that few tourists are aware of as they stop to consult maps or relax around. Game Eligibility. Casinos usually limit the number of games you can play with the no deposit bonus. There will be games that are not covered by the bonus, and then there are those that are Francois Damiens Casino De Paris covered but contribute less towards fulfilment of wagering requirements. Games like slots, Keno, and scratch cards usually contribute 100% towards wagering requirements.

The Monte Carlo Casino, officially named Casino de Monte-Carlo, is a gambling and entertainment complex located in Monaco. It includes a casino, the Opéra de Monte-Carlo, and the office of Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo.^[1]

The Casino de Monte-Carlo is owned and operated by the Société des bains de mer de Monaco, a public company in which the Monaco government and the ruling royal family have a majority interest. The company also owns the principal hotels, sports clubs, foodservice establishments, and nightclubs throughout the Principality.

The citizens of Monaco are forbidden to enter the gaming rooms of the casino.^[2]

History[edit]

The idea of opening a gamblingcasino in Monaco belongs to Princess Caroline,^[3] a shrewd, business-minded spouse of Prince Florestan. Revenues from the proposed venture were supposed to save the House of Grimaldi from bankruptcy. The ruling family's persistent financial problems became especially acute after the loss of tax revenue from two breakaway towns, Menton and Roquebrune, which declared independence from Monaco in 1848 and refused to pay taxes on olive oil and fruit imposed by the Grimaldis.

In 1854, Charles, Florestan's son and future Prince of Monaco, recruited a team of Frenchmen—writer Albert Aubert and businessman Napoleon Langlois—to devise a development plan and write a prospectus to attract 4 million francs needed to build a spa for the treatment of various diseases, a gambling casino modeled from the Bad Homburg casino, and English-styled villas. Granted the concession of 30 years to operate a bathing establishment and gaming tables, Aubert and Langlois opened the first casino at 14 December 1856 in Villa Bellevu. Intended to be only a temporary location, the building was a modest mansion in La Condamine.

In the late 1850s, Monaco was an unlikely place for a resort to succeed. The lack of roads needed to connect Monaco to Nice and the rest of Europe, and the absence of comfortable accommodations for visitors, as well as the concessionaires' failure to publicize the new resort, resulted in far fewer customers than was originally anticipated. Unable to raise the capital needed to operate the money-losing enterprise, Aubert and Langlois ceded their rights to Frossard de Lilbonne, who in turn passed it to Pierre Auguste Daval in 1857.^[4]

Casino De Paris Francois L'embrouille

During this initial period, the casino had been moved several times, until it finally ended up in the area called Les Spelugues (English: The Caves). Construction at this site began on 13 May 1858 to designs of the Parisian architect Gobineau de la Bretonnerie^[5] and was completed in 1863. Gobineau de la Bretonnerie also designed the neighboring Hôtel de Paris Monte-Carlo (constructed in 1862).^[6]

Although the casino began to make a profit in 1859, Daval was not up to the task. Just like his predecessors, he was incompetent and lacked the ability to bring the gambling enterprise to the scale envisioned by Princess Caroline.^[7] Frustrated, she dispatched her private secretary M. Eyneaud to Germany, hoping to recruit François Blanc, a French entrepreneur and operator of the Bad Homburg casino. Blanc declined the offer. It took a lot of time and persuasion on the part of Princess Caroline to convince the Blancs to move to Monaco. Princess Caroline even appealed to Madame Blanc, whom she befriended during her first visit to Bad Homburg, with a suggestion that Monaco's mild climate would be good for Madame Blanc's ill health.

Finally, in 1863 François Blanc agreed to take over Monaco's casino business. To manage the new venture, a company—the Societe des Bains de Mer et du Cercle des Etrangers—was formed with capital of 15 million francs. Among the prominent investors were Charles-Bonaventure-François Theuret, Bishop of Monaco, and Cardinal Pecci, the future Pope Leo XIII. Blanc became the single majority stockholder in the company and received a 50-year concession, which would last until 1913. Blanc used his connections to quickly raise the required capital, and began the massive construction. On Blanc's insistence, the Spelugues area where the gambling complex was located was renamed to make it sound more attractive to casino visitors. A few suggestions were considered, and the name Monte Carlo was chosen in Prince Charles' honor.

In 1878–79, the casino building was transformed and expanded to designs of Jules Dutrou (1819–1885) and Charles Garnier, the architect who had designed the Paris opera house now known as the Palais Garnier. François Blanc knew Garnier because Blanc had provided a loan of at least 4.9 million gold francs to the cash-strapped government of the French Third Republic, so that the opera house, which had been started in 1861, could be completed. It had finally opened in 1875. The alterations to the Casino de Monte Carlo included the addition of a concert hall (designed by Garnier and later named the Salle Garnier), located on the side of the casino facing the sea, and the redesign and expansion of the gaming rooms and public spaces, mostly carried out by Dutrou on the side of the casino facing the Place du Casino, where the Hôtel de Paris Monte-Carlo and the were also located.^[8]

In 1880–81, the casino was expanded again, to the east of Dutrou's Moorish Room, by the addition of the Trente-et-Quarante Gaming Room, also designed by Garnier. Subsequent additions and expansions, and the remodeling of the Trente-et-Quarante Gaming Room into the Salle des Américains, have mostly obliterated Garnier's contributions to this part of the casino, except for some ceiling decorations.^[9] In 1898–99, the Salle Garnier was remodeled by architect Henri Schmit, primarily in the stage area, so that it would be more suitable for opera and ballet performances. However, much of Garnier's original facade and the interior design of the auditorium itself remain intact.^[8] Despite all of the later additions and modifications, the casino still has a distinctly Beaux Arts style.

In 1921, the first Women’s Olympiad was held at the casino gardens.

Until recently, the Casino de Monte-Carlo has been the primary source of income for the House of Grimaldi and the Monaco economy.

Casino facilities[edit]

The casino has facilities to play a variety of games which include:

• Different kinds of roulette

1913 Gambler's fallacy[edit]

The most famous example of the gambler's fallacy occurred in a game of roulette at the Casino de Monte-Carlo in the summer of 1913, when the ball fell in black 26 times in a row. This was an extremely uncommon occurrence, although no more nor less common than any of the other 67,108,863 sequences of 26 red or black. Gamblers lost millions of francs betting against black, reasoning incorrectly that the streak was causing an 'imbalance' in the randomness of the wheel, and that it had to be followed by a long streak of red.^[10]

Breaking the bank[edit]

• In 1873, Joseph Jagger gained the casino great publicity by 'breaking the bank at Monte Carlo' by discovering and capitalizing on a bias in one of the casino's roulette wheels. Technically, the bank in this sense was the money kept on the table by the croupier. According to an article in The Times in the late 19th century, it was thus possible to 'break the bank' several times. The 1892 song 'The Man Who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo', made famous by Charles Coborn, was probably inspired by the exploits of Charles Wells, who 'broke the bank' on many occasions on the first two of his three trips.
• According to the book Busting Vegas by Ben Mezrich, a team of blackjack players recruited from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology by team-leader Victor Cassius and Semyon Dukach attempted to break the bank at Monte Carlo with the assistance of a team-play-based system. The book describes how the management of Monte Carlo responded to the success of the team. According to Semyon the account in Busting Vegas is accurate aside from the fact that the team was made up of himself, Andy Bloch and another player he refers to as 'Katie'.^[11]

In popular culture[edit]

• James Bond, a fictional British spy, is often associated with the Casino de Monte-Carlo.
  • Monaco and its casino were the locations for a number of James Bond movies, including Never Say Never Again and GoldenEye, as well as for the 'Casino Royale' episode of the CBS's Climax!television show.
• The casino served as a filming location for the 2004 film Ocean's Twelve.^[12]
• The casino makes an appearance in Condorman, The Castle of Cagliostro and Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted.

Other mentions[edit]

• The Monte Carlo method, a computational approach which relies on repeated random sampling to solve difficult numerical problems, was named after the Casino de Monte-Carlo by physicist Nicholas Metropolis.^[13]

Francois Damiens Casino De Paris

Gallery[edit]

• The Casino de Monte-Carlo main entrance

• View of the casino illuminated at dusk

• The main hall

• Roulette tables

• The gardens behind the casino with the Salle Garnier in the background

• South balcony

See also[edit]

References[edit]

Notes

1. ^'Le Casino de Monte-Carlo joue la carte de l'ouverture'. nicematin.com. Archived from the original on 2012-08-05.
2. ^The rule banning all Monegasques from gambling or working at the casino was an initiative of Princess Caroline, de facto regent of Monaco, who amended the rules on moral grounds. The idea that the casino was intended only for the foreigners was even emphasized in the name of the company that was formed to operate the gambling business, Societe des Bains de Mer et du Cercle des Etrangers (English: Company of Sea Bathing and of the Circles from Abroad). Source: Edwards, Anne (1992). The Grimaldis of Monaco: The Centuries of Scandal—The Years of Grace. William Morrow. ISBN978-0-688-08837-8..
3. ^Edwards, Anne (1992). The Grimaldis of Monaco: The Centuries of Scandal - The Years of Grace. William Morrow. ISBN978-0-688-08837-8..
4. ^'Chronology of Gambling (1852-1900)'. gamblinghistory.info.
5. ^Folli & Merello 2004, pp. 112, 114.
6. ^Denby p. 92.
7. ^Sharma, K.K. (1999). Tourism and Culture. New Delhi: Sarup & Sons. ISBN81-7625-056-2.
8. ^ ^abFolli & Merello 2004, pp. 116–117, 136; Bouvier 2004, pp. 190–192.
9. ^Folli & Merello 2004, pp. 132–133.
10. ^Lehrer, Jonah (2009). How We Decide. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. p. 66.
11. ^'ThePOGG Interviews - Semyon Dukach - MIT Card Counting Team Captain'. Retrieved 10 November 2012.
12. ^'OCEANS 12 - Production notes - About the production'. CinemaReview.com. Retrieved December 1, 2013.
13. ^Metropolis 1987.

Sources

• Bonillo, Jean-Lucien, et al. (2004). Charles Garnier and Gustave Eiffel on the French and Italian Rivieras: The Dream of Reason (in English and French). Marseilles: Editions Imbernon. ISBN9782951639614.
  • Bouvier, Béatrice (2004). 'Inventaires' in Bonillo et al. 2004, pp. 186–205.
  • Folli, Andrea; Merello, Gisella (2004). 'The Splendour of the Garnier Rooms at the Monte Carlo Casino' in Bonillo et al. 2004, pp. 112–137.
• Denby, Elaine (2004). Grand Hotels: Reality and Illusion. London: Reaktion Books. ISBN9781861891211.
• Metropolis, N. (1987). 'The beginning of the Monte Carlo method'(PDF). Los Alamos Science (1987 Special Issue dedicated to Stanislaw Ulam): 125–130.

External links[edit]

Paris City Hall and the square on which it stands form a cheerful, open, bright space where locals regularly congregate and relax. Known as “Hôtel de Ville” in French (note: despite the linguistic “false friend”, this is no hotel), the capital’s mayoral headquarters are situated on a large, pleasant square called– predictably enough–Place de l’Hôtel de Ville.

For most of the twentieth century and through to the present, it’s been an important locus of popular cultural life in Paris. In the winter months a sizeable ice-skating rink is set up on the sweeping plaza.

In June and July, free concerts and live tennis matches broadcast from Roland-Garros attract crowds, who gather clutching beer in large plastic cups and bask in the lazy summer mood.

Yet it has rather secret, gruesome past involving torture, corporal punishment and executions. Keep reading to learn how a square that today seems associated with Parisian benevolence and public good was once quite the opposite.

Place de Grève: A Dark History Few Tourists Are Aware Of

But despite the square’s innocuous appearance, and the fact that it represents one of the centres of democratic civility and public life in modern Paris, it has a remarkably dark history– one that few tourists are aware of as they stop to consult maps or relax around the fountains.

Well before the city hall stood here, the enormous square was known as Place de Grève– a place infamous for its bloody and unusually cruel public executions.

Since at least the 13th century, the Place was a site where Parisians gathered not to enjoy music or other festivities, but to witness their countrymen and women suffer slow, agonizing deaths.

Scenes of Public Torture and Execution

From beheadings to drawing and quartering by horses, hangings and later execution by guillotine, gory killings were routinely carried out on the square– and treated as fascinating spectacles by city dwellers.

While it wasn’t the only site in the capital to make a show of unusual and painful deaths as a purported way to deter criminality, the Place de Grève was routinely chosen for the executions of well-known public officials, as well as convicts and heretics seen as particularly deserving of cruel and unusual capital punishment.

During the 13th century, heretics (anyone not subscribing to Catholicism, essentially) were executed here; King Louis IX also ordered the burning of some 12,000 copies of the Talmud, a Jewish sacred text whose popularity was regarded as threatening the Christian political and religious order in Europe.

Robert Francois Damiens Execution

Suspected witches were burned at the stake here as late as the 17th century; others were hanged on the gallows. Corporal punishment short of death was also carried out here– the pillory (similar to the stocks) was long installed on the Place.

Read related:5 Essential Places in Paris for Medieval History

The square was also a tremendously popular site for public gatherings unrelated to executions, including protests and workers’ strikes– shows of dissent that became increasingly common following the first Revolution of 1789. This makes sense: grève commonly means “strike” in French.

This is a site, then, where public unrest and a brutal penal culture long coexisted and clashed. As the art historian Warren Roberts observes in his book on the “Revolutionary artists” of France:

The history of popular collective action and the Place de Grève are bound together in a common script. The most popular of public squares was also a center of political disturbances….The Place de Grève was a place for public parades and festivals, officially ordered and given for state purposes, and it was a place for public executions, where nobles, rebels, traitors, famous brigands, assassins, heretics, and ordinary criminals met their end. Claude le Petit wrote in his Chronique scandaleuse ou Paris ridicule that the Place de Grève was an “unhappy piece of ground consecrated to the public where they have executed a hundred times more men than in war”. He himself was executed [there] in 1662…

In almost dialectic fashion, then, the Place is a place of intense struggle: one between a public wrangling for increased rights, and a government intent on making a formidable show of its penal force, inspiring terror in anyone contemplating dissent.

Brutal executions prompt ethical questions

In the early 17th century, François Ravaillac, the assassin of King Henri IV, was tortured and drawn and quartered on the square; this form of execution was generally reserved for individuals convicted of regicide.

In 1757, Robert-François Damiens, the attempted assassin of King Louis XV, was subjected to unspeakable tortures before being drawn and quartered.

According to some historians of the epoch, he remained conscious after three of his four limbs had been torn from his body; he was then burned alive.

Read Related:The Pretty Paris Building With a Dark History of Nazi Collaboration

His brutal death inspired horror and circumspection in some of the observers of the time, and led to a sustained ethical debate about whether societies could continue using such methods of capital punishment and still claim to be “civilized.” The Italian explorer (and infamous womanizer) Giacomo Casanova noted in his eyewitness account of Damiens’ tortured death:

We had the courage to watch the dreadful sight for four hours … Damiens was a fanatic, who, with the idea of doing a good work and obtaining a heavenly reward, had tried to assassinate Louis XV; and though the attempt was a failure, and he only gave the king a slight wound, he was torn to pieces as if his crime had been consummated. … I was several times obliged to turn away my face and to stop my ears as I heard his piercing shrieks, half of his body having been torn from him, but the Lambertini and Mme XXX did not budge an inch. Was it because their hearts were hardened? They told me, and I pretended to believe them, that their horror at the wretch’s wickedness prevented them feeling that compassion which his unheard-of torments should have excited.

Casanova wasn’t the only public figure and intellectual to write of the execution’s brutality: Thomas Paine mentions Damiens’ suffering in his landmark tome Rights of Man (1791), citing it as a concrete example of despotic government.

And in the twentieth century, French political theorist Michel Foucault addressed Damiens’ torture in his 1977 book Discipline and Punish, now a familiar staple of cocktail chatter and graduate students’ thesis chapters.

But the growing philosophical debates over the merits and moral depravity of such executions didn’t stop other unusual and cruel killings from continuing. The French Revolution of 1789 brought on a new period of bloody executions.

After the Revolutionary government toppled the French monarchy, public executions mostly moved to the Place de la Concorde, where the guillotine– believed to be a far more humane method of capital punishment than the methods detailed above– was installed.

The final execution to take place on the Place de Grève was in 1830; the square was subsequently referred to under its current name, Place de l’Hôtel de Ville.

A legacy worth remembering

From a contemporary standpoint, you have to strain a bit to imagine how the bright, cheerful square– with its old-timey carousel, pop-up ice rinks and public fountains– harbored centuries of unthinkable torture and human suffering; how it was a place of public unrest and dissent as well as one of celebration and leisure.

Yet that legacy arguably says something important about France’s transformation, politically and socially, over hundreds of years.

This is a site that exemplifies, in a real sense, the nation’s rocky and uneven progression from absolutist monarchies to tumultuous Revolutionary regimes, through to the current-day Republic.

Read Related:These 5 Places in Paris Aren’t Usually Associated With African-American History. They Should Be.

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