PROFESSIONAL CARD SHARPERS

Evening Star, Issue 18094, 9 October 1922, Page 3

PROFESSIONAL CARD SHARPERS

VICTIMS ON LINERS. Passengers in Atlantic liners should beware this season of professional gamblers and others of the same class who live by their wits at the expense of indiscreet travellers, warns the ‘ Daily Mail.’ They are reported to be more active this year tnan at any period sine© tho war. A ship’s officer said last month to a ‘Daily Mail’ reporter; “Almost every liner has her victims each trip, and great sums of money are being lost by trusting travellers, either at cards, or worse still, in the shape of ‘ hush money.’ “ The steamship companies are powerless to do more than issue printed warnings about the presence on board of professional gamblers. After all, it must bo assumed that grown-up passengers are able to take care of themselves in the choice of their friends aboard and at tho card tables. Moreover, although we might suspect a man or woman of being a ‘ crook,’ it is difficult to find any reason for putting them ashore or otherwise restraining them when they have paid their faro as ordinary passengers. “It is known to us, and cannot be too widely known to the travelling public, that clever gangs of ‘ crooks ’— men and women—are regularly at work. They are well dressed and well mannered, and appear to have plenty of money. “ Tho members of the gang are frequently changed. Their activities take place chiefly, of course, in the great and luxurious vessels that attract the richest passengers. “Some of tho gamblers’ coups appear to bo so well organised that it is suspected there is a master organiser pulling tho strings—someone with knowledge, resource, new ideas, and bold methods of carrying them out. “ Tho audacity of the professional sharper is wonderful. Tho suspected chief of one of tho best-known gambling gangs was observed in one of the big liners a week or two ago with three other men, two of whom wore doubtless his intended victims. Before play began ho went to the notice board, where there was displayed a notice warning passengers about professional gamblers. He removed the notice, and, with a smile placed it on the table in front of tho players, telling them to ‘ tako a good look at thatl “A greater danger than the male ‘ shark” is tho woman decoy, either for luring a man into the gambling net —or something worse. The gang marks its prey down early during the trip, possibly on the landing stage where ho is observed bidding farewell to . his wife and family and friends. His social and financial position are soon ascertained. The more he has to lose by an indiscretion and its consequent scandal the harder ho is pursued. “ The pretty decoy, helped by tho glamor and freedom of life at sea and the vanity of all mankind, soon provokes and encourages the inevitable infatuation. ... I need not tell you the rest. The victim just buys, silence, that’s all.”