The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1903-02-09
CROOKED DEALING
IN EVERY JOINT
"Brace Faro" Dealt in Every
New York Gambling
House.

y
Election to the 100000 men living in
and around the city who have seen
their good money pass into the hand
some drawers of faro and roulette
tables.
This statement that not a single
gambling house exists in the city of
New York where the player can rely
upon an honest deal means much when
these facts are remembered:
L. That New York city is the great
est gambling center in the world, Mon
tie Carlo and other European resorts
not excepted.
2. That individual sums have been
lost in more than one of the New York
places that exceed by six and eight
times the bank rolls that could be won
at Monte Carlo or Ostend.
3. That the expense Of maintaining
the ten largest gambling houses in this
city, irrespective of losses they may
suffer, aggregates $4,000 a night, or
$4,000 week, or $1,560,000 q year.
That stupendous sum must be taken in
before the proprietors have any profits.
The proprietor of each one of these
places is enormously rich.
These ten places are supported by
men of social position, of wealth Poor
men or men of moderate means are
not wanted as patrons. The man who
goes in one of them willing to lose $40,
$50 or $40 for the chance Of winning a
much larger sum is not sought after
by any Of these ten places. The man
who pays his losses with a check is
wanted. That man does not limit HIM
self to the amount of ready cash he
may have about him. He gives full
swing to his gambling fever, keeps
only an appropriated account of his
losses and only realizes what he has
done when the polite manager names
the total of the sum he owes the house.
Who are the big losers in the gam
bling houses Of New York?
First comes John w. Gates, the
shrewdest business man probably in
the country, the man who made Au-
gust Belmont look like a small boy in
the science of finance, and had j. Pier
pont Morgan and other pillars of Wall
street worried to death. He lost $11O,-
600 in one sitting in Canfields. Did
Mr.. Gates get square, fair deal?
District Attorney Jerome thinks not.
Gates played faro. Garfield has the
two cleVerest brace faro dealers in the
world in his house, Mr.. Jerome says;
men who are SO adept that they acn
fool afrewd professional gamblers;
men who do not work for $40 or $40 a
night, but demand and receive a per-
centage of the victims losses.
This percentage is not known, but
the regular percentage which steerer
receives is 55 per cent of what the vic
tim he brings into a houses loses. The
house is content with As per cent
This percentage in itself shows what
chance the player has. Every gambling
house In the city from Canf1eld's down
employs Steerers. Their Headquarters
are at Broadway and Forty-third
street. If game were honestly run
no gambling house in the world could
exist and pay Steerers 55 per cent of
its winnings from certain patrons, the
house standing all of the losses. This
in itself shows that the owners of the
house figure that they have more than
b5 per cent in their favor to begin with
In honestly dealt faro the percentage
is only about per cent in favor of the
house and between 5 and per cent on
roulette.
1t is said the brace faro dealers in
Canfield's get so per cent of whatever
they win from the players who are
pitted against them. If by any acct
dent winning is made Garfield stands
all of it. These brace dealers never
work in the large general room of
Canfield's. They deal in one of the
small rooms on an upper floor reserved
for private parties-men who want to
gamble without any limit and in pri-
vacy.
1t was in one of these small rooms
that Reginald Vanderbilt and his
friends made their famous play late
one night Lawrence Waterbury and
Payne Whitney are said to have been
in the party, which numbered more
than half a dozen.
One man in that party lost that
night sum a shade under $50, 900.
This loss has been credited to young
vanderbilt, but as a matter of fact his
loss was but little over $1,000.
Did this crowd of young men get a
square deal?
A NUln hoe ~
fields small rooms with crowd of
rich young men, in telling of the ex-
perience, said:
THE whole crowd had been drinking
earlier in the night Nobody was drunk,
but there wasn't a man in the party
who was his normal self. We played
roulette. Some took $500 stacks OF
chips at time. Not one of us counted
our chips. They may have been $40, $50
or $50 short. When one made big
winning on a number he didn't stop
to count the chips pushed over to him.
He took the stacks without question.
Those stacks could easily have been
500 or more short. When it came to
settling up those who had lost heavily
had only hazy idea of what they
owed. If 500, 5000 or $500 were added
to their bills the total was paid with
out question. None of us watched the
ball carefully to see where it landed
and never questioned the winning
number that he called out It may
have been the correct one and 1t may
not. We simply relied upon his hon
eSty."
This shows how easy 1T is to swindle
players in a gambling house. Crooked
paraphernalla is not necessary unless
the player is scrupulously careful and
has an eye trained to watch every
move In the game.
But crooked paraphernalla is used,
and Mr.. Jerome alleges there is not
large gambling house in the city which
has not couple of brace faro dealers
and crooked boxes. He has a collection
OF crooked boxes in his office. Most of
them are simply fitted with a lever in
the lower left hand corner on the inner
side. Pressure on this lever widens the
slot, which is supposed to admit the
passage OF only one card, 20 that two
cards can be slipped out at the same
time.
There is one box whose mystery has
never been fully solved 1t has two
inner platforms instead of one The
aperture on the top is a sixteenth of
an inch wider at the lower end than
the upper. This reveals the marking
IN the margin of the card, and shows
the dealer the following card after the
top one has been moved slightly. This
oox is also lifted with the lever for
widening the slot. The second plat
form is believed to be of use in getting
cards back into the box after they have
been surreptitiously removed so that
those who are keeping cases. will not
have their suspicious aroused.
There is comparatively small need
OF crooked roulette wheels, the oppor-
tunltIes for swindling being so many
without their use, as shown in the
| sJatement OF the young man quoted
| above. But there are crooked wheels