A GAMBLER'S TRAVELS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18380, 21 April 1923, Page 2 (Supplement)

A GAMBLER'S TRAVELS.

PLAY IN MANY LANDS, '<J SPANIARDS : AND... CHINESE. • GREAT LOVE OF LOTTERIES. • y '-;".: :■";'■ i' no; 7, <Bt 'ARTHUR jDE COURCY. BOWER. ■ (In this, the seventy instalment of his f«anfeting Recollections of Casino Life, the *utuor fietalls hi experiences in wooing « ban «L th ° world over. He conducts the reader on a world's tour, describing the ™™» meg of gambling induced in by various nationalities, enriching the narrative by any vivid anecdotes of his own. %V t %2£&. v £ fan tan. euchre. . poker, and vmgtet un. Especially interesting " Will be found ma Australian experiences). I have travelled practically the world over and discovered that in every corner of the globe the spirit of gambling is active. And I suppose I must confess that pretty often I have yielded to a deBiro to participate in some of the queer games of chance characteristic of different people. '"',., Perhaps, if I were asked which counties were pre-eminently the most devoted to wooing chance I should reply China and Spain. And on a re-consider-ation I think I should award the palm to $he lattor country. In Spain—outside every cafe and each street comer— may bo heard a constant cry of "Un quinto de la loteria. "One fifth of a lottery ticket." The idea fa that the price, of a whole ticket is Deyond the pocket of most, and so it is divided into five shares all carrying the same number. So everybody has a quinto and is able to participate in the joyous excitement- of the innumerable lotteries with the eternal hope of good fortune attached. ■'<•-■ - - ."*. "''""'; ~ „ The Spaniards are "sports, as well as ramblers, and would literally "sell their Shirts" to attend a bull-fight or take up a lottery ticket. They are avid for any form of gaining, and .invent- new games to allow full play for this inordinate love of wooing chance. Prom Spain and San Sebastian to China and Canton is a long journey, but there is a link which unites them in my memory. This; is the lottery link. It lotteries are drawn weekly in Spain, they are literally drawn hourly in China. Perhaps, it will be interesting if I explain hove they are worked. The , Chinese Lottery. < j You purchase for a minute sum. a small Square piece of paper.with the first eighty Chinese numerals inscribed upon it. You may mark any ten numbers on, this paper and have it . initialled by an agent. The bank draws twenty numbers, and if the ten numbers you have marked correspond with any.ten of the twenty the bank has drawn you receive immediately seventyfive pounds for your sixpence. Should nine correspond, you receive twenty pounds; eight, only one l shilling. :. The drawings take place hourly. and are perfectly fair. The t eighty ' numbers are placed in three urns and a. child is called in to choose from which urn the draw shall bo made. Another child actually takes the numbers 'out, .'.and as they appear- they are called out and chalked. on -a, board. A mathematical computation will' show.that the odds are: tremendously in- favour of V the Bank, although at- first sight this does not appear/to be the case. :' . ' The Chinese have always appeared to mo to ;be the happiest people on , ; earth, {Their lives are hard, and in these games feuph as fan-tan they find ', a distraction and a delight*. < Pan-tan- is undoubtedly their . greatest gambling game, and I have always been . struck by the fact that the Chinese ; are wonderfully good losers. ; ; * Pan-tan is a great game and ridiouJously simple. It is played with a bowl full of cash, beans, or buttons. i These are ' counted out in' fours and the gamble (consists, in betting against the bank" to the number ~ remaining -when the last set has 'to" be : counted. * All throughout. the.East and; in America fan-tan is played hf all sorts ' and ' conditions of people, but the'."home" .of it is really at Macao, off the coast of *Kwang Tung, where every second - house is ;'a'- gaming room*. ■ A Mixed Company. , !When I was in this part of the world I pould not but observe ','."! how prevalent (these' games of chance were and i < how fascinating; they evidently became to ; the lookers-on. ; ■':-"'.„:■.'" ■'■'■'.■ \J' : '■ :At ; last in ■a\ queer sort of establishment I found myself ! sitting • down to', try ' and tempt luck 'at ; fan-tan. The name" of the place was ' Wu-Sung, ' just outside Shanghai and" Kwang-chan-fu. There were a good = many Europeans joining in, s and I quickly, settled down a to "throw" _myself heart -and f soul ' into this hovel game wherein any.'' system that I might "have;!forma-' lated would not help me at all.- -I. may say at once that I rose from the sitting a loser. " ."' "" ' "' ' - Such ; inveterate gamblers are the Chi- ; nese, and sueh hardy losers that ■ X have seen the • proprietor of a Chink restaurant take off his coat and hand over his business to' •;».■ waiter. Why? Simply Vbecause the latter; had won it off his master at a hot game of fan-tan, and this without the slightest murmur or repining against fate. In Australia, and. most particularly in Melbourne,* Chinese • lotteries used' to abound, • but fan-tan has Been ' supplanted by 'euchre. ''.Vwhich,:;,, was .imported from ■ jAmericat'l'i''i.'>--.V-'.,.-'- ■":•*-'■■ '- ■ -*-->•-_ '.% r- ; , ■■■' As many know, the highest card in euchre is ; the knave of trumps, and ;is called the right bower, the next card being the left bower. The similarity of the name to my own led to an : amusing cable being sent, to me at Santiago de Chile, by Melton , Prior :of the i Illustrated - London News. I had missed the Pacific "steamer at Valparaiso ; and , Colonel '% North ' had asked me to, go to Santiago, the capital, and take . charge 'of his nitrate interests while .he:, returned to Europe. Melton Prior was with him and cabled to me from •■ Lima, . Peru, as follows "Why are you like the second best card at euchre?'' Now, obviously I was in this case , the "Left Bower", in.every sense of the Word, but I was,; far from being";"euchred/'; for 1 made a-fortune through my enforced stay, which";!"' should not have done, had ''/;i caught the steamera fortune, I may. say, of over one hundred thousand pounds.

* irl ' ,->Ta.'- the Argentine. 1 J--.--. In the camps of the Argentine the most popular game among the Gauchos is undoubtedly the "Taba." This is, as a matter of fact, nothing 'else than the "Knuckle-bone" of a sheep, and the play ' consists in throwing it over a distance of some' ten feet so that it falls on its side. Considerable skill is needed for this, and the' betting on the result of a throw is fast and furious. Such things as ' a "loaded" Taba are sometimes found, a piece of lead having been inserted in the bone to influence the side on which it ,will fall. ' When' such ' trickery'. is discovered knives . are quickly whipped out, "ponchos" thrown over the left arm and, there is a fierce .fight with blood soon 'flowing. , % - . fS Another popular game among the Argentine gauchos is "truco." This ib played as a rule with the. old Spanish cards. These cards .have real clubs (or' "bastos" as they are called) for our club suit, and swords for our spades. Night alter night this game, which closely resembles "euchre" is played in every vpulperia," and the "peones," or workers on •''■.."'. the, "estancias," can bo heard shouting,"Truco, Retruco, Vale tjuatro !" ("Truco" » for the stakes!" "l eo double!" make it four times!") Very likely before the game is finished , they 'have gambled 7* away horse,: saddle, and* a few hundred sheep. But for every.loser there must ho a winner;- and -as the fortunate gambler is notoriously the •' most literal of mortals, the momentary exchange, of goods, does : : not in the,long run,--.do "-much' harm. Truco is a fascinating, if somewhat noisy [ game, and ■ I have spent many happy hours playing it with the care-free ' no- ;;■ madic .ea'uchos in the cool of the summer evenings on the rolling pampas of the ;0" ; 'l.. Argentine. ■'~!■ '•■'.* •';"■. -'a The Lure of; Baccarat. . ■; ;.\ In Buenos Aires, the capital, and most - prosperous city in the Southern ; Hemisphsre, baccaret is the chief game placed • phere, baccaret is the chief game placed

at the clubs. It is hardly necessary to say that in this .gorgeous city where practically every second man is a millionaire the "banks" are.very largo. '_ - I was present one evening «,t an amusing incident at Belgrano, on the outskirts of the city. I noticed that the "poussette was being indulged in pretty frequently by a gang of interlopers, who, somehow or other, had managed to gain access to the club. "Poussette," I may explain to the uninitiated, consists in altering the stake when the dealer is not looking. 1 told the manager what I had seen, and he laughed and said : "Wait one minute, and I'll show you a trick worth two of theirs. I will make them lose all they have won before putting them out." He then took the bank himself, and I watched carefully to see what would happen. „■ After the second deal he yawned, looked round the table, and saw money piled up on each side, "eight" having been declared by both. He yawned again, and called for a drink, deliberately turning round, and taking a long time to drink it with his back turned to the table. Then turning round he saw, as he had expected, the crooks had taken advantage of his seeming inattention to double their stakes. He then turned up his own cards—"nueve (nine) baccarat !'* and scooped the -• pool with both hands !

In Chile, on the Pacifio or Western side of the South American continent, the national character is of a more conservative nature than in the Argentine. Indeed,""the Chilians pride themselves on being called "Los Ingleses de l'America del Snd"— English of South America— but they also are very fond of a game and Vingt-et-un was the one that was most in vogue at the time I was there. It is, or was, so well known over here that it would be superfluous for me to explain it in this article. What is interesting, perhaps, is the fact that I last played the old game in company with the unfortunate President Balmaceda not so many hours before he had to seek refuge from an infuriated populace at the British Embassy. His end was sad, but he was a brilliant man and a good loser. A Paradise for Players. I returned from Chile, on the last occasion by way, of Panama and it was in those days simply a paradise for players. No steamers left the Atlantic side for two days after the arrival of the Pacifio Mail boats so that there was an enforced stay at Panama. Everybody gambled—there was nothing else to do and I played roulette at an uneven table with two zeros !' Whether I lost or won was absolutely immaterial to me for the stakes were not large, but even with the shocking handicap in the bank'b favour of a double zero I simply could not lose, and long before the French Trans-Atlantique boat, which was to take me back to Europe had been signalled as arriving at Colon, I had cleaned out the resources of the # .local "tables" and become quite undesignedly the plutocrat of Panama 1