Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1928-07-03

GAMBLING DEN ALWAYS
WINS, INVESTIGATION IN
WASHINGTON REVEALS
Continued from First Page.)
| odds against the shooter in a craps
game are as great. If not greater than
! those of any other popular gambling
game, and on the side bets-the long
shots"-the odds are even greater that
! the house will win. Yet everybody pre-
fers craps, it seems; they desert the
black Jack tables when the cry goes up.
Admitted With Acquaintance.
I found that out the first night was
in what seems to be the best known
club" in town. had scraped up an
! acquaintance with man who possessed
one of the magic little cards, and he
took me in. We entered the conven-
tional outside door and he rang the bell
in the vestibule. A buzzer sounded ana
between us we managed to pull open
| the thick wrought iron door on the
inside. We mounted narrow wooden
steps and wondered how 1t would feel
to come down backwards, propelled by
the heavy boot of the hardboiled gen.
tleman at the top.
He satisfied himself with giving me
dirty look My acquaintance passed on
to him some information had dropped
concerning the bigness of my pocket
book. It was fat. as matter OF fact'
but all the bills were dollar bills.
L. xnl ca
dealer OF a rather desultory black jack
game and the game broke up. All hands
headed for the billiard table except the
seven or eight overworked gentlemen
who were sitting in a corner ngurine
out the books of the afternoons racing.
They go to work as soon as the returns
are in and keep at it until midnight
sometimes.
Play on Billiard Tables.
The crap-shooting in some OF these
clubs is done on innocent-looking bill
lard tables This one, and most OF the
others I visited, had the table ntted
with rubber padded, 8-inch-high boards
around the edges in place OF the con-
yentionaI banks. The banker brought
out his box containing chips and
Slot for the bills and tossed leather
cup on the table. The other otiiciai
stacked several boxes of new dice In
front of his place at the side OF the
table, threw out new pair and stirred
them I'D with his long, curved stick.
The green surface of the tables Is
marked for the bets. In front Of the
banker are series of lines and circles
that battle your imagination until you
know what they are for. That narrow
line is for the shooter to place nus pet
on. Anybody else can bet with him.
The circles are for the come" bets.
If you want two to one against your
ability TO make 10 or 4. or three to
two against or S, put your chips just
outside the line. In front OF the
croupier are innumerable squares with
numbers to designate their purpose. On
them you place bets on the long shots.
The house will cover any conceivable
bet with stated odds. Chips are dol
lar.
Youth About Only Winner.
There was no fooling in this place.
The shooters went at 1t silently and
determinediy. Most of us lost. ]
dropped SIS in as many. minutes and
staked my patron to few disastrous
rolls. About the only winner was a
youth of is or II, who stood just under
a sign proclaiming mo minors allowed.
The sign meant about as much as an
other which announced that AL pro-
fame and vulgar language is positively
forbidden"
When left about 800 had found its
way into the box, and the half dozen
shooters had about $40 among them.
The nice big thug at the door was still
growing about the 1000 he had lost a
couple of nights before. ! estimated
that his nights profits probably wouldn't
reach half that. but still this was sun
day night On a Saturday night In
another place / counted roughly $4,000
that the house won In an hour.
Genial Atmosphere.
The next place / visited was pleas
ant contrast to the first. There genial
atmosphere mingled with the smoke. It
was In a different neighborhood. and
perhaps 1t reflected the spirit OF the
community. The banker chewed tobacco
genially. but never spat. A beardless
youth welded the four-foot stick.
slightly curved at the end. and between
shots kept up steady stream OF chat
ter. urging us to "eet on him while he's
hot. gents. Bet with each other and win
twice as much" He was very decent
about explaining all the hardway bets.
and I got to work and did little figur-
ing on my major premise, viz, It's the
house that wins.
The mathematical odds against the
man who Is shooting In crap game
are 251 to 244. approximately 36 to 30.
| They are not such small odds when you
consider the amount ~ money tnat
passes over one of these tables In one
evening. In the long run the house
takes a dollar Of every $50 that Is bet.
They augment this by paving as high as
| 80 for | on long shot points. BY paying
long odds and encouraging side bets the
| house multiplies the amount OF money
| wagered on every roll, And the more
money bet the more the house gets IN a
| big, normal game each shooter gets Inc
| dice about once In Is minutes, ana most
of them are too impatient to lose to walt
for their own turn.
$500 Wagered on Round.
counted money roughly for one
round of shooting. Twelve or thirteen
men rolled the dice, betting from 81 TO
! SIS on a roll. In the IL shots about
$500 was wagered, including all SIDE
bets. automatically the house would
collect about $l4 Of that as It's cut:
Actually IL collected about SIS. Even u
everybody shot par the house would
take In around $3.50 for al evening )
entertainment. 1t probably collected
nearer $1,000 Everybody was cold. '
they said ANYWAY, nobody touched
the dice, but the shooters, and you
could have a new pair whenever you
wanted them.
The main idea is 10 keep the betting
going Whenever 1t Tags the croupier
sings out, What does he come Tor,
gentS7 What does he come fOr?" Ana
the chips d %. I visited a place just
off Sixteenth street one night, where
there was a good homelike atmosphere
and everybody talked In we'll modulated
tones. as though they were waiting for
an ambassador or q bishop. Here they
said gentlemen" instead Of gents
| and / was afraid 10 take my coat of
without asking permission.