“Monaco’s first trick was to legalise gambling,” says Tarditi. The project was to bring prosperity not misfortune. “It’s for our own protection,” he shrugs, explaining that when the casino opened, in 1863, the sovereign who masterminded its construction, Prince Charles III - for whom ‘Monte-Carlo’, literally ‘Mount Charles’, is named - decreed that his citizens would never be allowed to play. It’s also illegal for any Monégasque, a citizenship Tarditi now holds, to place a bet inside the Casino de Monte-Carlo. Gambling is contractually forbidden for every employee of the Monte-Carlo Société des Bains de Mer (the organisation that owns and manages the majority of hotels, restaurants and beach clubs in Monaco). Incroyable! But my father told me then I should never play again. “That was my first experience with the casino,” Tarditi tells me. Buttoned into a trimly-tailored suit, he’s recounting the win on his office balcony, under a mighty Monacan sun. Today, however, he is its general director. Rudy went for the gamble, waiting patiently on the square until, eventually, his father reappeared - holding two francs.ĭecades later, Rudy remains at the casino.

Either keep the coin, or task his father with venturing inside, finding a slot machine and playing it.

On a family trip to the Casino de Monte-Carlo, his father stopped him just short of the grand front doors, and presented him with a single franc. The first time Rudy Tarditi won big, he was just eight years old.

Monte carlo casino game token on cards