Pool Fair

Distinguished European Gamblers

Some distinguished members of royalty were addicted to gambling.

King Henry VIII of England was an imprudent gamester. He lost the Jesus Bells of St. Paul's Cathedral to Sir Miles Partridge. Henry IV of France was not only a dissolute gambler, he was a thief. He hired professional gamblers to cheat members of his own court.

When King Charles V of France held the city of Orange in a siege, the commanding officer of his army gambled with and lost the soldiers' pay. Charles was forced to surrender.

Afterward, members of the French cavalry were forbidden to gamble; the punishment for disobeying was death.

Gambling in Europe gained and lost popularity periodically during the eighteenth century and the first half of the nineteenth century until the advent of the great gambling houses that became so fashionable with royalty and the polite society.

Francois Blanc, a crooked stock market player, built a successful casino in Luxembourg and later built the magnificent casino in Baden-Baden, Germany. Wealthy people from all over Europe flocked to the city to gamble ad to enjoy the curative waters of the spa.

In the early 1860s, gambling was prohibited in Italy and France; on the advice of his mother, Caroline, Prince Charles II of Monaco decided that the only way he could earn money from the 368 rocky coastline acres was to build a casino.

In 1863, Blanc was commissioned by the Grimaldi family to build a casino in the principality of Monaco, all that was left of the great Grimaldi family holdings.

In Monte Carlo, Blanc built both an opulent casino and hotel. The casino was an overnight success. The Prince of Wales gambled there often, as did Emperor Franz Josef.

Czar Nicholas and Leopold II of Belgium were frequent visitors as well. Wealthy Americans traveling in Europe discovered Monte Carlo and their enthusiasm for this stylish type of gambling establishment was responsible, in part, for John Morrissey's decision to build the Club House in Saratoga Springs, New York.

Gambling casinos are still permitted in Europe today, most notably in Germany, Monte Carlo, Austria, and Great Britain. Britain legalized gambling in the 1960s so that churches could raise funds through games like bingo.

But loopholes in the law allowed private clubs to offer games of chance. By the end of the decade, there were over a thousand gambling casinos in Great Britain.

Gambling proved to be so lucrative an enterprise that bookie joints were legalized; also, it has become an established and acceptable way to earn revenues.