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A twenty-minute ride aboard the ferry Panagia takes me across the Gulf of Corinth to Agios Nikolaos, where I hire a taxi for Delphi. The road winds steeply through dense olive groves. Some of the hillsides are scorched by the recent forest fires, leaving only charred tree-trunks sticking up like black toothpicks. "A lot of Greeks think the fires were set by foreign enemies," says my taxi driver. "Maybe it's the Turks trying to destroy our tourism."
After an overnight visit to Delphi, the site of the ancient oracle and the mythical center of the world, I re-cross the Gulf and find myself in Loutraki, a down-at-the-heels seaside resort whose current claim to fame is that it houses the Club Hotel Casino, Europe's biggest gaming establishment in terms of turnover and profits. Jean-José Cohen, the casino's p.r. man, meets me at the entrance and shepherds me through the elaborate security procedures — ID check, mug shot, signature — that wind up making me a card-carrying "member" of the club.
Cohen, a congenial, French-born Greek national with a salt-and-pepper beard, gives me a quick tour. "Seventy tables, 600 slots, an average of 3,200 customers a day," he tells me. "Since we opened in 1995, we've had 5.8 million people come through these doors."
"Mostly Greeks?" I ask.
Cohen nods. "Gambling is a Greek passion. It's our Mediterranean character. They say the biggest gamblers in the world are the Chinese and the Greeks. The Chinese will gamble their wives away; we stop at our mothers-in-law."
The 6,500-sq.-m gaming floor is decorated with garish copies of ancient Greek frescoes and plaster statues on marble pedestals. At the tables, players are staring intently at blackjack cards and spinning roulette balls. They seem strangely sedate, considering the large sums that are in play. "People spend a lot of money on gambling here," says Cohen. "I don't know where it comes from. They bet a total of $4.7 billion last year. The average daily bet per player is nearly $500. Anybody in here would be considered a VIP customer at a U.S. casino. We serve free drinks at the tables to show our appreciation."
Owned by four Israelis, the casino is a lucrative business by any measure, with $118 million in gross income and $34 million in profits last year. But Cohen is quick to point out that the establishment pumps more than $42 million into the local economy — not counting taxes — and hires 1,080 people. "You can't stop people from gambling in any case," he says. "If we don't offer it here, they'll just go somewhere else and drain the economy."
Over dinner at the casino's French-style restaurant, I ask director John James what makes people gamble. "Dreams," he says. "They're hoping to get something easy very quickly. But the reality is that the house will always come out ahead. The casino business is mathematical. If someone stays at the table long enough, we'll win. The percentages give us the edge." Cohen nods. "There's no way to win at the casino, we all know that. People just come here and spend a nice time. They get rid of all their negative energy by pouring it into the game. It's like a Luna Park for adults."
"But a lot of them are losing the rent money," I remark. "Doesn't that bother you?"
"We're trained not to get emotionally involved," says James, 44, a former British soldier who has worked in casinos all over Europe and the Far East. "What we're selling is memories — bad if you lose, good if you win. If you go to department store and spend $500, you come out with a suit. You go to the casino and all you come out with is memories — and dreams."
"And what do you get out of it?" I ask.
"It's a profitable business," he says with a quiet smile. "When you manage people's money well, you get well paid for it. The gaming industry has paid me to see the world. I have met kings and queens, stars like John Wayne, Richard Burton, Omar Sharif. It's a good life-style. And it's something I'm good at. When you're good at something, you're passionate about it."
Gambling's not my personal passion, but I consider it my duty to play a few rounds of roulette in the interest of thorough story research. I take my seat at a table and lay down 40,000 drachmas — about $120. The croupier stuffs them down a slot and rakes over a small stack of chips. I start by betting on single numbers — and lose half my stash in three spins. Time to change strategy. I put all my remaining chips on red and win. Then, to keep them guessing, I vary my game — a red here, an even there, a couple of shared numbers and a zero. Spread your bets, that's what the pros do. In ten minutes, my money is all gone. But I did get a free Perrier — and some unforgettable memories.
NEXT: TIME meets filmmaker and Athens resident Jules Dassin
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New Heights
From virtual life in a Geneva lab via a bird's eye view of the Alps to a pavement perspective of old and new in Greece and Rome
Photo Gallery
Check out the photos from this leg of TIME's Fast Forward Europe voyage
Insect Power
Software that imitates the behaviour of ants could make highway and telecom traffic more efficient
Firm Foundation
Scarred by war and restoration, the Parthenon gets a facelift
Next Revolution
The Palais de Tokyo, site of Paris' first modern art museeum, will re-open to showcase young artists
Italy's Future
Will center-right media magnate and former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi regain the title in the spring? He's up against Rome's Mayor Francesco Rutelli in the center-left corner
Speaking in Tongues
Films in local Italian dialects are a surprise box-office hit
Sky's the Limit
A sneak preview of Airbus' three-decker superjumbo with its casinos, shops and piano bars
Fascinated by Fire
Public spectacle designer Yves Pepin on the need for fireworks, fountains and mass celebrations
A Greek Sojourn
TIME's Paris bureau chief Thomas Sancton discovers the old and new Greece
Songs of the South
TIME explores the Italian-speaking Ticino region of southern Switzerland
City of the Future
Toulouse could well be a model of multi-culturalism
The City That Always Sleeps
A visit to Geneva's wild side
The Mouse That Roared
TIME travels to Andorra, one of Europe's smallest countries
The Eternal City
>A trip through the glory that is Rome
Pasta Bella
A visit to Barilla, pasta purveyors to the world
Top Gear
TIME test drives a Ferrari | Photos
A Second Life
TIME meets Hollywood star turned restaurateur Leslie Caron
My Dinner with Claude
TIME dines Claude Nobs, the founder of the Montreux Jazz Festival
Thinking Outside the Sandbox
Innovative teachers in northern Italy are integrating technology into classroom life
Mind Trails
Forget Al Gore: TIME Speaks with the inventor of the World Wide Web, Tim Berners-Lee
A Brief History of the Higgs Hunt
Scientists in Switzerland may have solved one of the great mysteries of particle physics. Why should we care?
People To Watch: Nadia Magnenat-Thalmann | Amélie Nothomb | Mirko Nesurini | Michel Meyer | Neil Barrett
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