Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1886-10-23
DOMINO GAMESTEnS.
A New Gambling Device With Which
Mongolians Amuse Themselves.

a New Gambling Device with Which
Mongolians Amuse Themselves.
Pittsburg Post: The police raids on
the Chinese gambling establishments
in Pittsburg have almost broken up
the playing of their f~avorite game Of
..tan," which no II but a Chinaman
| ever did or ever could understand.
Tan is some sort of an arrangement
with Chinese coin for checks, and the
little sliding counting machine some
what similar to the cease keeper in
faro, playing the most prominent posi-
ton in the paraphernalia. There is
nothing Il Chinaman so fears as the
brass buttons and blue clothes Of a
policeman. 1t is hard to make a geuu-
Inc Monaghan believe that ne is not to
be hanged, drawn and quartered when
he gets arrested. He has therefore
given up cards, too. because the police
have II prejudice against colored paste
boards. The ineXtinguishable desire to
| gamble HIS forced the Mongois
TO resort 10 new devices, and the dom
mo game is now the great gambling
device.
A Grant street dive is the great re-
sort for the Chinese gamblers, and il is
there that the rattle of the dominoes is
o~ftenest heard. Like al their games it
is one a Caucasian knows little about,
and il took considerable investigation
for Il reporter 10 find out how it was
PLAYED. He wouldn't swear that he
did find ont, but this is the explanation
an intelligent Chinaman gave him:
The number of dominocs used de-
ponds upon the number of players, but
generally the number is 100. The dom
inoes are played on the table and scat
tered around here and there. As they
cannot be shufled like cards. The
dealer. who is generally the proprietor
of the place, then turns the dominoes
over, with the faces down. He next
picks them up and asserts them into
thirty-two piles, each five high. The
gamblers then pay 10 cents to the
dealer, who asks them if they are ready
to 90 on with the game. When they
are all ready he leaves the first two
intact, so that they contain five domi-
nocs each. From every second row,
on to the end he takes II domino and
places it to one side. The players then
shake dice to see who will be the first
PLAYER. The winner gets ten dominocs
and the others nine each. The game
consists in pairing the dominoes-that
is, adding the number of spots on any
two Of them SO rs to make either ten
or twenty, and the player who first
scores five pairs wins the amount put
in by the gamesters, less . cents, which
goes TO the dealer. The first man when
he receives his ten dominoes examines
them, and if he then has five pairs he
wins the game. If, on the other hand,
he has not that number OF pairs, he
must throw one of the dominoes
ON the table. thus leaving him
nine in bis hand. The see
ond player. who originally received but
nine dominecs, Is entitled to pick up
the discarded domino and use it if by
50 doing be can make five pairs. If the
discarded domino will not benefit his
hand he calls for a domino from the
dealer. who gives it to him from the
bottom Of The pile. If he then can not
make five pairs he throws away one
domino, and a third player draws the
same rs the second player. The sys-
tenn of drawing and discarding is con
tinued until n of the players obtains
five pairs, and the game is thereby
ended.
Naturally there can not be any large
amount of money won or lost by such
a game. 1t i, only the spirit OF gam
bling that keeps up the game. Some
of these nights there will be another
raid on the Celestiais in Pittsburg, and
a horse and wagon will have to be OBJ
tanned to haul the dominoes to the Cen
trail station.