St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1885-05-10
GAMBLERS TRICKS.
Means By Which Professional Gamesters
Pluck Their Victims.
Faro-Dealing Boxes and Roulette
Wheels Made for Rogues.
philadelphia Times.


No one looks upon professional gam
bier as a shining example of honesty, but
only few people know what crooked sharp
ers most professional gamblers are or the
ingenious mechanical contrivances which
they employ to aid them in winning the
dollars of the victims. The man who
makes gaming a profession rarely OF never
depends upon ''lucll" 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 we'll
understood percentage" in favor of the
proprietors. This is understood by all who
play, but it is so trifling that they are will
ing to pay it for the privilege OF hazardlng
their money There is another percent
age' in all of these games as played at
many places that is only understood by
the professional dealers and is never SuS-
pected by the players.
In the game of faro the known percent
age 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" Some
times an entire deal is played without this
occurring and it really happens more than
twice in deal, so that the visible percent
age is quite small; so trifling, in fact, that
if faro game is dealt fairly it must have an
almost unlimited capital or eventually
become bankrupt.
CHEATING AT FARO.
1t is to guard againgt this mishap and to
make the game profitable one that the
unknown percentage is introduced. TO
accomplish his purpose the gambler has
both the cards and dealing-boX fixed"
This fixing process of the cards is done
as follows; A new pack is used and one III
which every card is exactly the same size,
| to a hairs 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 high cards; that is. to
| put in separate piles, all ranging from the
ace to the six and from the eight to 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 pair of sharp shears, made
especially for this purpose, the gambler
| clips thin slip from the edge OF each card.
The high cards are clipped in this way from
| the upper right-hand corner to point on
the lower edge about the thirty second part
of an inch from the lower right-hand
corner. The low cards are clipped III the
same way, except that the gambler COM
mences at the low right-hand corner and
clips to point on the upper edge near the
right corner. The cards now are wider at
one end than at the other, but the differ
ence in width is so slight as to be almost
| fn 10
cards are then shuffied, 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. 1t is an easy matter
now for an expert manipulation to catch the
wide ends of the cards between his thumbs
and fOrefngers 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 shuffies the cards thoroughly and
| then in this way separates the high from the
| low Next he so Shuff1eS them as to
sandwich each low and high card and
when the pack is in the dealing-boX they
should come out alternately.
| FRAUD IN THE DEALING BOX
| 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 deal
| ing-boX is procured. The ordinary dealing
boxes have slit in the side just wide
enough to admit one card passing through
it at a time; the special boxes have slit
wide enough to allow two cards to pass
easily through them. Armed with these
simple contrivanees all the the dealer has
to do is to watch where the bets are and
win every time by either showing out one
card or two, as occasion requires. If a
player bets that high card will win, the
dealer can very easily make it lose or vice
versa. Of course, the game keeper is a
confederate and at sign from the dealer
can tell how to arrange the lease" so that
| they will tally with the cards that are out
| This is what is called ''brace game"
probably because it can only be played by
a ''brace' of rogues. Thousands of faro
players who think that luck is always
against them are simply victims of the
''brace game"
| CHEATING MADE EASY.
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 invaribly win if the
wheel is turned in one direction and the
black win if turned in the other. These
are known among gamblers as fright and
Left wheels and are used with great success
in many places.
Wheels of fortune, with cunningly arrang-
ed brakes so that they can be stopped at the
will of the dealer or turner" are success
fully used throughout the West. With
these aids and with the dexterity and
legerdemain which all expert gamblers