Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1883-03-29
HOW GAMBLERS WIN.


Is no such thing as a square gambler
or square gambling hell in New
York, and there are very few outside
of it. Gambling hells are simply
schools for swindlers and thieves to
graduate from. But for gambling. one
half the convicts in our State prisons
would be honest and free men.
Gamblers call all outside their frater-
nifty suckers. They say. There is a
sucker born every minute, and New
York is the best place in the world to
catch them Saratoga is, in summer,
the gamblers paradise-one vast gamb-
ling hell crowded withsuckers. There
are so-called skin gamblers, but those
termed square gamblers are ten times
worse than the skins. The skin
gambler, the bunco man, and even the
thief, all work for thesquare gamblers,
who skin the skins themselves. In
New York there are at least 10000
gamblers, who each spend $4,000 annu-
ally. Add to that their winnings, over
their expenditures, and the rent and
cost of keeping up their gambling
hells, and total amount Of at least
S40,000,000 per annum is shown to be
squandered on gambling in New York
alone. The poor and middling classes
pay this. The wealthy contribute
little comparatively to the slppoit OF
the blackleg. There are 10000 men
and boys who gamble away annually,
on an average, $500 each in this city.
Nineteen-twentieths of the gamblers
are loafers aid villains capable Of COM
mitting any crimes. And it is only a
question of time how soon the business
man who gamb.es and associates with
gamblers becomes a swindler and
thief. Two-thirds of the failures and
dishonest transactions among business
men are caused by gambling and asso-
citation with gamblers. One of the
greatest knaves of the day is the bust
ness man who, having himself been
robbed, becomes a steerer fer gamblers.
The gambler will not give back to him
the money he has lost, but will show
him a chance to get even by roping in
his friends and receiving half Of what
is robbed from them.
"In every gambling hell, however
young and inexperienced the majority
of the dealers may appear to be, there
is 'an artist who knows everything
necessary to get the suckers money,
and he is always called upon for the
heavy work. Ten-cent games have
the most patrons. They keep ice
water and bad whisky for their Gus
toners, and each robs the comparative
ly poor who frequent them out of
$4,000 to $4,000 a year. Next in
order are the SIS limit games, each Of
which wins $4,000 to $4,000 a year.
Then comes the twenty-five cent
check games, which furnish better
drinks, have bolder players. are less
frequented by boys than the preceding
ones, have $25 limit, and win from
$4,000 to 100000 a year. Last of
all, and highest, are the big games that
play 500 limit-liable to increase to
accommodate sucker in haste to get
rid Of his money-where they supply
players with all sorts of fine liquors
and serve suppers. These each rake
in from $4,000 to 100000 a year, and
sometimes take as much as $4,000 in
a single night.
"The company found in gambling
hell is the most demoralizing that
exists. President Eliot, of Harvard
university, was complainant against
a gambling hell in Boston on the
ground that the young men attending
the college were running themselves
there. 1t would be well if some Of the
college presidents in this city would
follow his example if they do not wish
their students to be graduated as
gamblers. 1t is not an infrequent thing
to find students ruined by gambling.
ruined in soul as well as pocket, before
they are men. A graduate of theo-
logical seminary is now a dealer in a
ten-cent game in this city.
"The principal games in gambling
hells in this country are known as
faro, roulettee, red and black, hazard
and sweat. Hazard and sweat are dice
games. At best the percentage against
the player is fifteen per cent, bu. the
gambler makes a sure thing Of robbing
him by using dice loaded with quick
silver. Red and black is played a great
deal in the lowest class of policy
shops by the poorest whites and
colored people. The percentage in the
dealers favor is from seven to thirty
seven per cent, or as much more as
the dealer thinks safe if he uses a two
card box. Roulette, which has become
quite popular in the last few years, is
played both with the tiirty-six wheel,
on which the percentage against the
player is six per cent, and the snap
wheel, which enables the dealer to
throw the ball to red or black, or odd
or even. just as he pleases, in which
case the percentage is vastly greater.