Democratic Sentinel, Volume 9, Number 37, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 October 1885 — GAMBLERS' TRICKS. [ARTICLE]

GAMBLERS' TRICKS.

Means by Whicli Professionals Pluck Their Victims. [Prom the Philadelphia Times.] No ob© looks upon a professional gambler as a shining example of honesty, but only few people know what crooked sharpers most professional gamblers are, dr the ingenious mechanical contrivances which they employ to aid them in “winning” the dollars of their victims. The man who makes gaming a profession rarely or never depends upon luck for his existence. In faro, roulette, monte, hazard, and in all other games known to the gentlemen of the green cloth, there is a certain well-understood “percentage” in favor of the proprietors. This is understood by all who play, but it is so trilling that they are willing to pay it for the privilege of hazarding their money. There is another “percentage” in all of these games as played at many places that is only understood by the professional dealers, and is never suspected by the players. In the game of faro the known percentage is very small. When two cards of the same denomination come out of the silver-plated “dealing-box” together, the dealer takes one-half of the bets which happen to be on that card on the “layout.” Sometimes an entire deal is played without this occurring, and it rarely happens more than twice in a deal, so that the visible percentage is quite small; so trifling, in' fact, that if a faro game is dealt fairly it must have* an almost unlimited capital or eventually become bankrupt. it is to guard against this mishap and to make the game a profitable one that the unknown percentage is introduced. To accomplish his purpose the gambler has both the cards and the dealing-box “fixed.” This “fixing” process of the cards is done as follows: A new pack is used, and one in which every card is exactly of the same size to a hair’s breadth. There is an almost imperceptible difference in the sizes of the cards in nearly all cheap packs, so that the gambler buys for his purpose expensive cards that have been “squared” especially for faro. The first step in “fixing” is to separate the low and and high cards; that is, to put in separate piles all ranging from the ace to the six, and from the eight to the king. The seven being neither high nor low is equally divided, two sevens being put with the high and two with the low cards. Then with a pair of sharp shears, made especially for the purpose, the gambler clips a thin slip from the end of each card. The high cards are clipped in this way from the upper right-hand corner to a point on the lower edge, about the thirty-second part of an inch from the lower righthand corner. The low cards are clipped in the same way, except that the gambler commences at the iower i-ight-hand corner and clips to a point on the upper edge near the right comer. The cards now are wider at one end than at the other, but the difference in which is so slight as to be almost imperceptible except to the touch. The cards are then shuffled, care being taken to keep the wide ends of the high cards and the wide ends of the low cards at opposite ends of the pack. It is an easy matter now for an expert manipulator to catch the wide ends of the cards between his thumbs and forefingers, and so draw all of the high cards into one hand and the low ones into the other. When the game is in progress the dealer shuffles the cards thoroughly, and then in this way separates the high from the low. Next he so shuffles them as to “sandwich” each low and high card, and when the pack is in the deal-ing-box they should come out alternately. This wouldn’t suit the dealer at all, as he must not only know just how the cards are arranged, but at the same time have perfect control over them. In order that he may have this power a specially arranged dealing-box is procured, The ordinary dealing-boxes have a slit in the side just wide enough to admit of one card passing through it at a time; the special boxes have a slit wide enough to allow two cards to pass through them. Armed with these simple contrivances, all the dealer has to do is to watch where the bets are and win every time by, either shoving out one card or two, as occasion requires. If a player bets that a high card will win, the dealer can very easily make it lose or vice versa. Of course the gamekeeper is a confederate, and at a sign from the dealer can tell how to arrange the “cases” so that they will tally with the cards that are out. This is what is called a “brace game,” probably because it can only be successfully worked by a “brace” of rogues. Thousands of faro-players who think that luck is always against them are simply victims of the “brace game.” Dealing-boxes and cards prepared in this way can be procured from a Chicago firm, which issues private catalogues to gamblers containing samples of marked cards, with directions for reading the backs. The firm also sells roulette wheels so arranged as to make the red invariably win if the wheel is turned in one direction and the black win if turned in the other. These are known among gamblers as “right and left” wheels, and are used with great success in many places. In this day and age of our Lord the majority only make a living anyhow, and many there are who are not so fortunate. ’Tis only now and then that any one person amasses great wealth. Don’t make up your mind to become opulent without hard work, and you may be gratified if you can then keep your head above the high-water mark, amid the tribulations that for some good and sufficient reasons undoubtedly are to be met with in every and all ' branches of business.