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History pages
François Blanc
his was for a reason, however, since this business
was not vital to the Principality up until Prince
Charles III came into power. On December 3,
1860, he established la Société de Bains de Mer
that owns the Opera, Casino and the Hotel de
Paris to this day. But the gambling industry took
time to take off, and it would be years before Monaco would be
known for gambling. Railways needed to be built to improve the
circulation between France and Italy, allowing business to rocket at
an incredible rate, once the infrastructure was established, allowing
more people to reach the Principality. On February 18, 1863, the
Casino of Monaco was opened with much pomp. And this really
made the gambling industry soar to incredible heights. The efforts
of François Blanc and his wife Maria were finally repaid.
F
rançois Blanc was a native of Provence, and he and his twin
brother Louis were born in the small town of Courtaison on
12 December 1806. Their father Claude Blanc, a tax officer,
died before the brothers were born. The boys were growing up in
a small, quiet town and dreaming of becoming rich and famous.
When a circus came to town, they were particularly impressed by the
gambling tricks that it was demonstrating. They decided to go off on
a circus tour all over the south of France, taking up diverse work and
studying all the tricks of the trade. They finished up in the gambling
business in Marseilles. Becoming quite successful, they both realized
that they had found a way to make their childhood dreams come true.
Marie Charlotte Hansel
Eventually François and Louis saved up enough to expand
their business. In 1833, they were able to open a small bank in
Bordeaux and began to do some speculations with government
pensions and real estate. Using their ingenious strategies (some
of which were later outlawed), they multiplied their quite
considerable fortunes. They were soon arrested, however, and
brought to trial for fraud.
At that time, there were no special laws prohibiting any of their
business strategies. They turned out to be the first creative fraudsters
to have invented such speculation tricks. The Blanc brothers finished
up paying a fine for bribing state officials and were released. This
unpleasant experience made them leave Bordeaux and head to Paris.
That’s when they came up with new gambling projects to circumvent
the existing anti-gambling laws. The brothers opened a number of
institutions before King Louis Philippe passed his new laws banning
gambling and leaving them out of work.
T
he Blancs never gave up. They moved up to Homberg and
started a very lucrative gambling business there. This was
just a start of their big success in the landgrafting of Hesse-
Homburg, near Frankfurt. At that time, Homburg was encumbered
by substantial debt and the local monarch signed a very profitable
contract with François and Louis Blanc to develop its tourist industry.
Their success was phenomenal. Homburg quickly became the «hot
spot» of Europe with its gambling houses, rich hotels, theaters,
a spa, numerous gardens and cultural attractions. It became a
«The Wizard of Homburg» became «The Wizard of Monte-Carlo». With
the arrival of François Blanc, The Princely government’s money
problems soon became history.
Hello Monaco – Winter 2018 / 67