The Waterbury Democrat., 1939-10-20

Tap dice are the most cunning of
 all the crooked cubes. Say you hold
 six face up in your hand. The
 next throw will result in a six. If
 you hold an eight up, the next
 throw will return an eight once
 more. Inside, the dice work like
 an hour-glass, with the stuff shift
 ing from top to bottom, thus
 loading any side.
 The crooked cube boys usually
 carry four dice. They palm two
 legitimate ones and use two loaded
 ones. After few winning losses
 they switch off to the straight pair
 In that way they make their point.
 or purposely fail to make it if you
 are betting with" them against an
 ally. As general rule, when the
 frisky dominoes are being used, the swil1dler remains stopped close to
 the floor just 30 he can grab them first should you decide to inspect them.
 Magnetic table surfaces are fast disappearing from gambling estab- hshments and are almost extinct Smart lads soon wised up 10 them by bringing dollar wristwatches with them. They'd rest their wrist on the table for moment. If the watch became magnetized, the game was crooked The majority of wheels at fairs, amuseemnt parks and carniyals are not crooked be- cause the premium offered usually is worth only a few cents. In most cases the wheel contains fifty num- bers which sell for a dime apiece. The prize offered costs the operator about fifty cents-net.ing him a profit of over four greenbacks each time he spins with his layout cov- cred =. Manufacturing a crooked gamblers equipment is a large in- dustry in this country. One mid- west concern sells "hold-out" (used to shoot cards out of the sleeve or yest) for five hundred frogs. Other articles retail for as high as a grand.
 :. Card hustlers usually travel in fours. The man who stacks the aces or executes the phoney cuts is called the mechanic. The one ,.ho brings in the monkeys is known as the contact. The other two accom- plices are usually dignified-looki gents who could pass for retired business men, and are straight men" in the game. The ruse em- ployed to get you intot he game is known as the tip. When sucker falls for the bait, they say: "He went for the tip" Every once in while they will let the monkey win several deals in TOW. then ac- cuse him of chea ting-reversc psychology to keep him from sus- pecting tco much.
 The average gambler knows more about psychology than most profes- sors. When a sucker, who's been taken to the cleaners, squawks, the hustler will say sarcastically: "Al right, MT. Blank. if that's the way you feel about it I'm going to tear up your check" Whereupon he tears the check to pieces in front of the victim. This usually con- vinces the latter that the gambler is on the level so, apologetically. he writes another check. If he does not, no harm done. Because the slicker has switched checks under his nose, and torn up a dummy one. If the victim writes another. the crook is able to cash in twice on a single killing. Gamblers don't mind taking checks from the chumps they've trimmed. but they prefer small ones so that the banks won't be suspicious when they go to cash them.
 Professional gamblers have uni- versal sign language. In the event that two sharps find themselves playing against each other, they ''declare" themselves with sign of recognition. Do you know old Bill?" is another simple way of discovering whether the strsneer is hep. or just another sucker. If he ncds his head. he's okay. If he asks What Bill?"-he's goner.
 To celebrate the 140th anniver- sary of the birth of A. S. Pushkin. xN