The East floats into town

It is early May and the famous Place du Casino — wherein lies one of the world’s oldest gambling houses, the renowned Monte Carlo Casino — is overflowing with tourists.  Californias, 911s  and Continental GTs line the casino entrance for tourists to gawk over and take the cliché Monte Carlo postcard shot beside overpriced luxurious wheels with the Monte Carlo casino behind: the ultimate photo of lavishness.  The European sovereign debt crisis engulfing the principality’s neighbors does not seem to have reached Monaco, but the faces flocking to these alluring two square kilometers do seem to have changed, with Asian and Eastern Europeans tourists replacing Western European and American ones.  A look at the recent financial results of the Société de Bains de Mer (SBM), Monaco’s biggest employer and the company behind some of the principality’s most prestigious assets, does not paint the same rosy picture as the Place du