As we were enjoying our lunch of a breast of veal carved from the roasting trolley, an expensively dressed man suddenly got up from the table diagonally opposite and said to his companion, “I feel lucky right now,” and walked off through an archway. He came back about 10 minutes later just as the waiter was delivering two impressive-looking lobsters to his table.

Over dinner on my second visit to Aspinalls, the long-established gaming club in Mayfair, this scene was repeated at several tables. Customers, individually or collectively, went off to do battle with Lady Luck at the gaming tables.