Word: croupiers
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Annecy was the eleventh French casino to be raided and the seventh to be closed in the past two years. Police are seeking to halt a croupier crime wave that has robbed French gambling palaces of uncounted millions and besmirched France's longtime reputation for honest dealing at the roulette wheel. As gambling police explained it, the once honorable profession of croupier, traditionally passed on from father to son, has been taken over by organized crime. Even France's major croupier school has been infiltrated by gangsters. Croupier school graduates figured prominently among the 20 dealers who were...
...croupiers' most common method of stealing from casino management is almost as old as roulette, which was supposedly invented by Philosopher Blaise Pascal in 1655. A crooked croupier merely palms a $100 chip or two from the stacks of losers' chips that he rakes to the side of the roulette layout after each turn of the wheel. Since the croupiers' dinner jacket pockets are traditionally stitched shut to prevent just such finagling, nimble-fingered dealers tuck stolen chips inside their shirts or cuffs...
...important auction combines the tension of an operatic first night with the ambience of a celebrity party. A top auctioneer has the talents of a croupier, a fight promoter and a matinee idol. As SPB President John Marion, who has wielded the gavel for 18 years, said to TIME'S Georgia Harbison: "A good auctioneer is very much like a good lecturer. Everyone should understand what's going on and be sitting forward in his seat." He added: "Sometimes the atmosphere in the salesroom is absolutely crackling. The eyes of the whole world...
...shiny new roulette wheel slowed, the hopping ivory ball fell into the green "0" slot, allowing the croupier to rake in the bets. A few minutes later, against the odds, 'the ball dropped into the "00" slot, again making losers of almost all the bettors pressed against the table. The house, predictably, was starting off ahead...
...even be argued that betting, within reason, has redeeming social value. Felicia Campbell, a University of Nevada behaviorist who earned her Ph.D. with a thesis on "Gambling Mythologies and Typologies" (and was once married to a croupier), insists that gambling permits many people?especially the elderly?to "lose themselves in the action of the moment." She adds: "Even though the final result is often negative, it's a positive impulse. The peak experience is almost more important than winning. When he grabs the dice, a blue-collar worker is in control of his destiny. For the businessman, gambling...