THE APPLICATION OF MACHINERY TO GAMBLING.

Globe, Volume II, Issue 133, 3 November 1874, Page 3

THE APPLICATION OF MACHINERY TO GAMBLING.

As is generally known, many of the most ingenious implements in household use come to us, remarks Iron, from the United States, where the scarcity of reliable domestic servants renders their employment a necessity in families of only moderate means; and now the application of a complicated system of levers and wires to games of chance has been brought to light during certain building alterations in San Francisco. While taking down the walls of the house in question—an old and too much frequented gambling den, which had been put down by the authorities —three wires were discovered, running up the wall from the floor to the ceiling. A general investigation of the whole building then took place, and the moststartling revelations followed. Directly over the gambling table, in one room, was a small hole, through which the play was watched by a confederate, who signalled his accomplice by a series of wires ending in levers beneath the carpet, on which the dishonest players placed their feet. The faro room was, however, the most ingenuously contrived thing in the house. In the first place, wires ran from the door, so that a signal was given when it opened, and in an instant everything was in readiness for the drop. This was accomplished by two levers and a space beneath let into the floor. In a second the gamblers withdrew from the table, each man, of course, grabbing his cheques and money, and by a motion of the levers the yawning floor opened, and down went the whole "layout." The carpet was then drawn over the spot, and when the officers hove in sight there was nothing in the shape of gamblers' implements to be seen. From the house there were taken out no fewer than 150 wires, and several contrivances for suddenly hiding gambling implements.