The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-06-30

the former comprising the numbers from one 10
eighteen inclusive, the latter from nineteen to
thrty-six.
III is a singular scene, one of these gaming
tables. Around IL, from eleven in the morning
until eleven at night, sit or stand the players, an
exceedingly mixed assemblage, gazing with
covetous eyes upon the piles of gold and silver
placed before the bankers, and watching with
intensest interest the fluctuatiHg chances of the
game. There are males and females, cid and
young leaders in the grand monde, and leaders
and satellites in the denti-monde; people who
play because they have plenty of money, and
wish to amuse themselves, and people who play
because they have but little money, and want
more. There are nobemen and titled ladies in
abundance, and there are tradesmen and profess
sional men and gamblers, all sitting or standing,
and elbowing, and brought into the closest con-
tact with each other. There are hard-faced peo-
pie, men and women sitting at the tables, who
live year In and out at HOmbourg, and make
gambling profession. These are usually per-
sons who have small, fixed incomes, and who
fatter themselves that they have discovered
systems by which the games can be beaten, and
the cruel divinity of chance circpmvented, and
who frequently sit for hours carefully noting the
numbers as they appear at roulette, or pricking
with pin upon cards furnished for the purpose
the winning color at rOUge-et-nOtr, waiting for
the combination to arrive which is embraced in
their system
A'These systems for winning at the bank are
numerous, but are all based upon the fallacy
that chance is guided by law, which, if there be
any bucu Inlug as 'CHance, is n contradiction In
terms. Thesimplest and most apparent 'sys-
TEN for winning at q banking game-one which
appears palpable and positive to the uninitiated
player-is that of commencing with small
stake, and doubling 1t until 1t wins, when it is
evident that the player viii be the gamer by the
amount of his original stake. But there are
three formidable obstacles barring the way to
the success of this plan; could these be removed,
the plan would be an excellent one, and one
which would assuredly ruin all the gaming
tables of the world. The first of these is the
lack of sufficient capital to enable an ordinary
player to endure the losses. Suppose a player
at roulette, for example, in the application of
this system, should commence by stalking q
fve-franc piece upon one of the simple chances
say, TO simplify the matter, upon red, and sup
pose that red should lose, as red or black not
unfrequently does, twenty times in succession
his last stake would, in this case, amount to
2,62l ,44O francs, and the entire amount lost in
the twenty bets to 5241, ,015, or about million
dollars. 1t is only the old school-boy illustra-
tion of the nails in the horseshoe, on little
larger scale. If the player were able to COM
mence with q small stake, were there no limit to
the amount which he should be allowed to bet,
it is evident that, with an unlimited capital he
could, by this system, inevitably and surely
win. But the bdnk is too wise to permit this.
and the stakes at all banking games are limited
at either extremity with a minimum above
which no stake will be accepted. At Hombourg
the minimum at roulette is fixed at one, and at
rOuge-et-nOir, two forins; and the maximum
thousand. and at rouge-et-noir five thousand six
hundred forins so that player commencing
with the minimum at the former, would only
need to lose twelve consecutive bets to attain
the maximum, where he would be obliged, if he
followed out his system, to return to his original
stake, after having lost four thousand and
eighty-three forns in the attempt to win one
which is all he would have done had he at any
time in the series of twelve gained single
stake. A little practical experience in this mat
ter OF winning at banking game by doubling
will soon convince any one, to his cost of the
lmpracticability of the system But, besides
the obstacles mentioned, there is another, which
no amount OF care, circumspection. or boldness
can overcome-the percentage of the bank
the fact that when zero appears at roulette, or
the retdH at rouge-etnoir, all parties on all sides
and colors lose. This is sufficient alone to ruin
all calculations, and destroy all probabilities of
ever permanently winning by system.
Another exceedingly plausible system of
winning at a banking game is one based upon
the theory of the equilibrium of chances en-
braced in the aphorism that, within a given
period, two simple chances will appear an equal
number of times The practical application of
this system, the infallibility of whichan author,
who has recently published book of advice to
players, showing them how they can surely win
says is 'as certain as the return of day after
night, is playing upon color or any other SIM
Pile chance, when it has either not appeared at
all In certain number of times, or when it is
far in arrears of its opposite. If, for example,
appeared but twenty times, and red eighty the
player upon this system would, with the idea
Of restoring the equilibrium, commence betting
and doubling upon the black. But in this sys-
TEN there is no more certainty than in any of
the others. 1t is probable, although by no means
certain, or capable of demonstration either
theoretically or practically, that the axiom
assumed is correct, that were man to live to
the age OF Methuseah, and should he in his ear
lest youth commence tossing a penny in the
llr, and continue this amusement during sixteen
hours a day up to the time of his death-it is
probable although by no means positive, that
during this long period of time nearly an equal
number Of heads and tails must have made
their appearance But the attempt practically
to apply this theory of equilibrium to any
limited space OF time-to hours days, or even
years-is, as any one can easily satisfy himself
by trying it, simple absurdty.
"Still more palpable and inviting to Young
player is the idea that, after Simple chance
has lost considerable number of times con-
secutlYely, 1t must soon win. Ii, for example,
nj roulette, the red has appeared at eight sue
cessive turns of the wheel, it seems evident To
the superficial calculator that the probabilities
are strongly in favor of black on the next turn
and the temptation to bet upon it is to the neo-
phyte almost irresistible But this is a fatal
error. Chance is subject to certain degree of
calculation, guided to a certain extent by mathe-
matical law Before the penny has been tossed
the chances are exactly equal that it will fall
with head or tail uppermost but the proba-
olllty Is as three TO one that heads will not
appear twice in succession-as seven to one
against three consecutive appearances, as fifteen
to one against four, and so on in arthmetical
But when these probabilities have
been surmounted, when the penny actually has
fallen with the head up at. four successive
tosses, the chances again become exactly equal
that it will fall head or tail upon the fifth
there being, after the former has been made, no
connection between the fourth aud fifth toss
The same rule applies to roulette or rouge-et-
notr. Before the turn of the Wheel the chances