Word: baccarat
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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With elephantine grace, Egypt's corpulent King Farouk waddled through another week of festivities at the French seaside resort of Deauville. He played baccarat, attended the races, acted as judge of a bathing beauty contest, downed quantities of frogs' legs and lobster, received two Egyptian Channel swimmers (see SPORT), and smilingly suffered a Parisian nightclub songstress to clip off his black tie when he would not rise and follow her to the dance floor. Across the Channel, the British press cocked a scornful eye at the goings-on. "Never," sniffed the London Daily Mirror, "have modesty and anonymity...
That night the King turned up at the Casino with the Aga and the Begum, the Aga's son, Aly Khan, and his wife, Rita Hayworth. Farouk got into a baccarat game and played on until 5 a.m., winning 20 million francs. The next night he won 15 million, the third night he began to lose. The Casino refused to give out statistics on the losses...