Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1942-09-25
Short Story
The Percentage Play
By CHARLES McGUIRK


.nR. CYRUS BLANBURY was
~ recognized Tor years rs a big
Rambler in Reno, New. where hlg
gamblers are as plentiful as clover
in good hay. And by gamblers IS
not meant tho owners of gambling
establishments or the dealers they
employ.
They arc merely business men
running places equipped with rou-
bette wheels. fortune wheels, cards
and dice games and horse rooms
and taking their profits from me
percentage which starts 10 work
against The player as soon as he
picks up a card or numbered
cube or lays a bet on z horse.
No. BY gamblers is meant the
PLAYERS who 60 into such places
and make their bets on the turn OF
wheel or a card or on a throw
Of the dice. knowing that the per-
centage works against them but
knowing also that when luck IS
running their way the law of per-
centaCeS goes out the window and
anything may happen.
REGULAR GAMBLER
In Reno. as in any town where
Rambling is wide open and on the
level, il is a common thing TO hear
rof some business man, little
weary Of routine buying and sell
ing, taking a whirl in a gambling
house and winning or losing thou
sands of dollars.
. Doctor Blanbury wasn't one Of
these. His gambling was no de-
parture from the normal. 1t was
the normal. II was as regular as
his morning coffee and, sometimes,
a million times as costly.
The doctor gambled every day.
playing no favorites as 10 the
games in which ne INDUCED. He
shot craps or played bingo, rou-
lette. blackjack or the. horsesI
with the same still-faced zest and
seeming Indifference as 10 whether
ne Wptl OF IuSl.
He was a big man. He had been
an All-America halfback in his
college days and. at 81, he still
had waiStline and heavy shoul-l
ders and brisk step and two
wonderful hands that made him
one of the best surgeons in the
country.
NO BAD HABITS
He kept in condition becauseI
his work demanded il and because
he took pride in his well-preservedI
body. He had no bad habits. Hel
neither smoked nor drank. He had
been happily married for 25 years
and had one grandchild. Elsa, 6,
the daughter of John, his only son.
His daily routine never varied.
He operated at 9 o'clock every
morning and his skill was such
that patients came from as far
east as the Atlantic seaboard and
IS far west as the Pacific Coast.
He was finished by IL and he
went directly from the hospital TO
any one of six or seven garningl
places, carrying his emergency
case, after telling his secretary
nurse where she could reach him.
He began his play in whatever
place he had selected that day.
Generally, he started with roulette,
buying $1,000 worth of chips at a
time and placing them with his
short spatulate fingers rapidly on
as many as 10 different numbers
while the little white ball whirled
in its socket and then dropped into
a numbered groove.
NEVER CLUSTERED
He might lose $1,000 in an hour.
He might win three times as
much. II seemed 10 make little
difference. His eyes would flick
the wheel as the ball fell and he
would wait while the dealer gath
cred up his chips or paid him on a |
winning number.
When the dealer spun the ball
INTO ltS groove the doctor began
laying his chips again.
Sometimes he would have al
sandwich and a cup of coffee
brought TO him at the gaming
table. Sometimes he left one place
and went 10 another where hel
would lean over crap table and
bet enormous amounts of silver