CARD CHEATING

Greymouth Evening Star, 6 January 1937, Page 12

CARD CHEATING

MODERN TRICKS OF TRADE

Lipstick, vanity bags, rings, care-fully-manicured fingernails are making fortunes for Britain's most flourishing class of swindlers —the cardsharpers of the bridge tables, says the "Sunday Referee."

For twelve months the game has made phenomenal strides in this country. Bridge leagues and associations are unable to keep up with the new clubs which are being started every week. There are three times as many bridge clubs in existence now as there wore last year.

And 2000 people in Britain make adishonest living at bridge. "The trouble is.’ 'a leading player said, "that many of them started their careers at small provincial clubs, developed their methods of cheating among unskilled players, and so progressed to chibs where the rewards are richer.

"Their consistent success —by cheating—is the very thing that enables them to move into higher circles. “There arc not more than a dozen players who can, by honest skill, make a consistent "£lOOO a year al bridge. There are scores who make that amount by cheating.”

Although the sharpers usually work in pairs, the lone wolves are the most difficult to detect. Men make the coolest swindlers, hut women are more numerous.

'I he professional cheater rigidly observes the smaller proprieties. She never makes secret signals to her partner—it is unnecessary with

the complicated modern systems of bidding—or peeps at her opponent’s cards. She is a stickler for etiquette. Usually she is the last person you would think of accusing. Four out of five sharpers employ the method of secretly marking aces and kings. They are marked in the course of play, and where a man and woman are working together, it is usually the woman who does the marking. In one London club recently the secretary noticed that a number of used cards were marked with a slight smear of lipstick, and quite by chance discovered that the cards so marked were all aces and kings. A little detective work in comparing the lipstick with that used by women members brought him opposite an attractive and intelligent young woman, wife of a well-known engineer.

Watching her. he discovered that whenever a. new pack of cards was produced, she took out her vanity case and proceeded to decorate her pretty lips, working the lipstick carefully in with her little finger. But a smear of lipstick always remained on the finger.

'rhe charming young wife resigned hastily.

Rings with sharply-pointed jewels arc also used for marking. Fingertips, manicured to a point, tire another favourite instrument