The roulette played such a significant role in the political life of a major European state that it put an end to the career of an eminent person and even became one of the causes of the Civil War. Can you imagine that? This really happened in Spain in the 1930s of the last century. Those events went down in history under the title Straperlo. This word has been used by Spaniards as a synonym of the financial scandal at the highest level since that time.
The protagonist of this history was Alejandro Lerroux, a prominent Spanish politician, who had played an important role in social and political life of the country in the first half of the twentieth century. He served as Prime Minister of Spain four times.
Lerroux served as minister of Foreign Affairs in 1935 in the government that had been formed by Chapaprieta, a financier from the Radical Republican Party. It seemed that his affaires and affaires of other colleagues from this political party had to be great, but then Daniel Strauss, a bold adventurer, who had arrived from Holland, appeared on the horizon.
He brought a roulette to Spain which could be controlled with the push of a button. It was powered by electricity. The unusual title of this roulette had its origin in the names of Strauss, his partner from the Netherlands Perel, as well as his wife Lowann.
Its design resembled a traditional roulette with a reduced quantity of numbers, differences in the layout and other features. Strauss tried to introduce it to the authorities as a game that had nothing to do with gambling. He said that everything depended solely on the skill of the players.
Daniel succeeded in establishing his roulette at the Formentor Hotel from which he was soon expelled. Then he tried his luck at the Casino Kursaal in San Sebastian, but the local audience quickly got that it was a fraudulent device and the police banned Straperlo. Its further fate was under threat and Strauss, who had spent a lot of money to develop this fraud, could not afford it.
The opinions of historians about the further events are diverse. Some of them report that Daniel persuaded influential members of the Radical Republican Party to vote for the legalization of the fraudulent roulette called Straperlo. He offered for that a considerable share of the revenue from gambling campaign. The others insist that he began to blackmail Lerroux, since the relatives of the minister were involved in the Strauss' fraud. Alejandro refused to make a deal with Daniel who wrote to the president.
Anyway, this story was made public. Lerroux's reputation was hopelessly spoiled. Opponents used this scandal to gain maximum benefits and the discredited minister had to resign.
His did not recover from losses. He lost his seat in parliament, left the Radical Republican Party, and later moved to Portugal, where he lived for many years. Many of his colleagues had to resign due to the Staperlo scandal.
The already existing significant political crisis in the country was exacerbated by these events and led to the Spanish Civil War in 1936- 1939.
So, the fraud with gambling had such negative consequences.
The word "straperlo" enriched the vocabulary of the Spaniards. It is used as a synonym of the financial scandals involving major statesmen, double standards of politicians and corruption within the ruling elite.
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