Daily globe., 1883-06-26
TRICKS OF GAMBLERS.
Some Startling Figures About the Fortunes
That Go to Their Nets.

some ABOUT the OcCuneS
That Go to Their Nets.
Gambling, and How Gamblers Win"
vas the subject of lecture delivered
in New York city, by J. H. Stanley,
from which the following interesting
extracts are made:
"There is no such thing as q square
gCmhler OF a square gambling hell in
New York, lie went On. "and there are
very few outside of it, Gambling hells
are simply schools for swindlers aud
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
fraternity 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, i'll sumner,
tlIe gamblers paradise-oDe vast gam
bling hell crowded with suckers. There
are so-called skin gamblers, but those
termed square gamblers are ten times
worse than the skins. The skin gam
bier. the brnko man and eveI. the
thief, all work for the square gambler,
vino skins the skins themselves. In
New York there are at least 10000
gamblers, who each spend $1,000 an
nually. Add to that THEN winnings,
over their expenditures, and the rent
and cost Of keeping up their gambling
hclls. and total amount of at least
10000, 900 per annum is shown to lie
squandered Oh gambling in New York
alone. The poor and middling classes
pay this. The wealthy contribute t.
tie comparatively TO the support Of the
blacEleg. There are $50, ,00O men and
boys who gamble away annually, On an
average, $500 each i'll this city. Nine
teen-twentieths of the gamblers are
loafers and villains capable of commit
ting any crimes.
"In every gambling hell, however
young and Inexperienced the majority
Of the dealers may appear to be, there
Is an artist who knows everything nee
essary 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 customers, and each
robs the comparatively poor who fre-
quent them out of $4,000 to $4,000 a
year. Next in order are the $15-limit
games, each of which wins $15. 900 to
$50, 1000 year. Then comes the 25-
cent-check games, which furnish better
drinks, have bolder players. are less
frequented by boys than the preceding
ones, have q $50 limit and win from
$40, 900 to 100000 a year. Last of
all, and highest, are the big games that
play 800 limit-liable to increase to
accommodate a 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 5000, 900 wear. and
sometimes take as much as $50. 900 in
a single night.
"The company found in gambling
hell is the most demoralizing that ex-
lists. tits not an infrequent thing to
find students ruined by gambling,
ruined in soul as we'll as in pocket. be-
fore they are men.
"The principal games in gambling
hells IN this country are known as faro,
roulette, red and black, hazard and
sweat. Hazard and sweat are dice
games. At best the percentage against
the player is Is per cent, but the gam
bier makes sure thing of robbing him
by using dice loaded with quicksilver.
Faro is the great gambling game of the
country. At the faro table more money
has been lost, more homes blighted.
more hearts broken, more lives de-
stroyed and more swindlers and thieves
made than anywhere else by any other
agency in the land. The percentage
in favor of the bank in faro is variouslv
estimated at from to 10 per cent, but
under certain conditions it is infinitely
greater, even in a square game. When
there are three cards In the box on the
last turn, for instance, the bank has 20
per cent. in its favor on all calls. But
human nature is the strongest percent
age in favor of the gambler. A man
always plays more to get even than to
win."
Here the lecturer entered upon an ex-
tended technical expose of the arts bv
which faro dealers fleece their victims.
Showing how two-card or lever-and-
squeeze dealing boxes are constructed,
and their use, he also described how
cards are prepared for dishonest deal
ing from such boxes; how humps or
rounds and straights are fixed by trim
ming one-half of a pack narrower at the
ends than in the middle, and the other
half by trimming the middle narrowest,
the evens then being sarded with fine
sand or emery paper on their faces and
the ends on their backs. so that they
will stick together when the dealer
wishes to pull two cards at once from
the box, and so change the deal. Strip
pers, narrowed at one end, and cards