The Monte-Carlo Casino offers an idyllic setting, surrounded by gardens and an incredible terrace overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. Built in 1865, the Monte-Carlo Casino is the symbol of Monaco’s extravagance. In the face of Monaco’s financial success, campaigns against “the monstrous acts of the Monégasque hell” were conducted in neighbouring countries, where gambling was prohibited. In 1995, GoldenEye and James Bond by Martin Campbell, featuring Pierce Brosnan, were also partly filmed in the legedary Monégasque casino. Since 1983 and the film Never again from the cult James Bond saga, three more shootings have taken place at the Monte-Carlo casino. Might there be some form of James Bond-esque honor code in that degree of skill? Might these kinds of cheaters deserve to get away with it? But the admiring tone is reserved for the right kinds of people. “I would sentence people on their skill level,” he offers, by way of compromise. Combining physical tricks with extreme memory skill appears to be the real talent. But that’s a relatively easy skill to master. After six months of work, day and night, the Monte Carlo Opera was inaugurated in January 1879. The success was immediate and due to the sheer crowds, the casino’s gaming rooms had to be enlarged, as well as the terraces and gardens.
The Casino of Monte Carlo in literature: ” In the middle of the village: a palace. In the palace reigns a prince. This businessman from Provence was commissioned by Prince Charles III of Monaco to make the Principality more attractive to tourists and wealthy foreigners alike. Monégasque people are not allowed to gamble in the Monte-Carlo Casino or indeed any other casino in the Principality. In twenty years, the Principality became known and frequented by all the world’s royals: princes, princesses, emperors, dukes and great fortunes met to play. In order to understand the minds and reach of the tricks of the world’s best cheaters, Sal has taught his own brain to memorize a sequence in a deck of cards instantly. Your best friend? Your lover? Hotels (including the famous Hotel de Paris), as well as villas and gardens (such as the Place du Casino) have been built around the Monte-Carlo Casino. The Monte-Carlo Casino is known for its exquisite interiors.
One time, there was one casino … Charles III enforced the ban, due to the low income of Monégasque people at that time, but also to avoid any risk of fraud (the casino employees were also Monégasques), so the Sovereign simply banned them from gambling. In 1878, SBM called on French architect Charles Garnier to design a concert hall adjoining the casino, directly inspired by the Paris Opera. Designed by the French architect Gobineau de la Bretonnerie, the Casino takes you back to the Belle Epoque, even if just for an elegant evening of gambling. The establishment also has two restaurants: the Salon Rose, a cosy brasserie, and the Train Bleu, a gastronomic restaurant open only in the evening. There are two types of cheats, Sal Piacente, an international card-cheater catcher says, using one of his favorite lines. Together with his wife, Dee Piacente, Sal, 51, owns and operates UniverSal Game Protection Development, Inc, a company set up almost a decade ago to advise casinos and private venues around the world on how to protect themselves against card cheaters, and how to catch them. Surf the line. Legitimacy may just be one memorizing game away.
“The biggest rule in this business is trust no one. He recalls one incident in which an opportunist supervisor working in a casino – a man presumably categorized as an “amateur” – reached down every night where there were chips and shoved thousands of dollars’ worth into his pockets. Casinos have thousands of cameras, but there are only a handful of people watching them. “These games are all mathematically designed for the casinos to win. With its Belle Époque style, the Monte-Carlo Casino is composed of seven gaming rooms and many slot machines, as well as numerous private lounges open to the most prestigious clients. Paintings, sculptures, stone carvings and gilded ceilings, as well as stained-glass depictions of the Grimaldi’s history. Sal has been in the casino and card playing business for more than three decades, and has worked most positions out there: he’s been a dealer, a supervisor and worked in surveillance. Sal Piacente has been in the casino business for decades as a dealer, supervisor and player. Piacente speaks in a Brooklyn accent that would not be out of place in a mob movie. If you’re going to cheat, be clever and get out fast …
