OCEAN GAMBLERS

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 119, 23 May 1925, Page 16

OCEAN GAMBLERS

CAUGHT BY OLD AMEJSICAN

SEA-LAW.

For the first time in almost thirty years gamblers have been convicted c"f cheating; and under the maritime law* of the United States sentenced to prison says the.J'New York Times." Jeremiah Pajne, Norman M'Leod, and Charlea Steel, found guilty before Judge A. F St.. Sure in San Francisco a few days ago, were sent to prison for five years each, the...charge being that; they cheated in a : pober..game on-board a coastwise liner plying petweecn Seattle and ban D ie go. The three gamblers had Wen rfymg-thstt-.'gane". on the West Coast-.; for-,a-.-number of years Previ ously they had practised on the passengers of transatlantic liners sailing rom Ivew Yorka WhUe on the \\t lantio they had .kept':clear of the law" tor they are of-that group whose bands »ro^ quicker ..than'tho eye. For years «ucfi-,vcard,..£harpars .as-,tncse"mcu "were almost surb^: ; be-aboajd, but now they a. rs d S?,P.?«™Tg. They were as clever at concealing their identity as they were at concealing extra, aces. '" \ Paine, ■MM.eojl, aod Steel found the Atlantic: getting inhospitable some years ago.and migrated. In the West:they v C . aumed their tricks and . h.ad taken "in many thpqsa.uds of dollars . l)y perfect team work, when suddenly a few weeks ago luck broke the wrong Way. .',. ' " ■ n,O? the.- trjP T down rr o".i Seattle the three enticed J. A. Rolfs, a wealthy manufaciurer, into, 'a J ' po W game .Rolfs proved a . mOS t. astute ph V ver. Hand after hand he won, and the sharps began to get restless.' In.-otder to break tho streak of lock of. their wtendod victim, a fiftli ms-ji was invqted to* join the ga-me. After, thc,-J]fth man'"sat in (lungs begra to breafc-riglit-fo'i- the jhrcr partners. At last Uolffi"-^ dealt'three kings in one hand and-threw into t.he discard an a-ce of diamonds.. Ho' had tho lortune to draw in ".'a.'fourth kin" so bo foUowod tho betting until he had stacked 260 dollars on his four kinss. But one of the three sharps took the pot with a- royal flush. It had'Cori'mq.ch' flushneas, sinco his royal flush was ace,' king, qneen, jack, and ten' of diamonds' Spectators of the game later testified in Court that the ace of diamonds origiijally dealt to Eolfs was found in the discard, that Rolfs held the four legitimate kings, thus proving that the sharps had intrqduced a fifth ace and fifth king into; tho game. Tbb trial took more than t.wa wceksy simple as. tho caso lpoked. Paine, M'Leod, and S^eel contended that, tiiey' -were men of independent lagans travelling for pleasure," and that the extra caxd3 were introduced by Eolfs. Government evidencg revealed that all three of the men had beeri known as. professional" gamblers on liners between Tyew York and Kuropean ports. The: Judge' believed the evidence so convincing .Mist he dsoi°d a motioa for csv ixizL.