SWINDLING APPLIANCES.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XV, Issue XXI, 23 November 1895, Page 638

SWINDLING APPLIANCES.

Even the swindling gambler is ‘ good for business ’ in his own particular way. This, at all events, is the case in New York, where the manufacture of swindling appliances for gamblers seems to be as flourishing an industry as pork-butchering in Chicago. The gentlemen who are at the head of these manufacturing houses which exist ‘to assist the doctrine of chance ’ are wonderfully inventive, their goods including crooked faro boxes, ‘ fixed ’ roulette wheels, marked cards loaded dice, and ever so many other pretty little contrivances. Marked cards, it would seem, are the most popular means employed by the gentle cardsharper in the pursuance of his profession. Various methods enable the sharper to distinguish the different cards. One of the most common is by a slight variation in the pattern of the back of the cards. Some of the variations are so slight that it seems almost impossible for any gambler, however keen his eyesight, to detect them. What is called the bicycle card is a favourite advantage card. The pattern represents a bicyclist riding along a road, w’hile an owl sits in a branch of a tree on one side of the way. The limbs of the trees are bare and the little twigs which stick out just beyond the owl’s perch determine the value of the card. They vary in number and position according to suit and value. The difference is exceedingly small, and even if you know the cards are crooked it is difficult to discover where the crookedness lies. Leaded dice furnish another means for swindling. When dice are skilfully loaded and the advantage is not too apparent, detection is impossible without cutting them in two. In making them great skill is required. The die is drilled through to the centre over one of the black spots, a plug made of the same material as the die is inserted, and the spot reblacked. This plug is a little shorter than the hole drilled, and thus leaves a hollow space, which influences the fall of the die according to its position and depth. Sometimes this hollow space is filled with a heavier material. Dice are wade to throw high or low or to favour one particular number. The proper size and position of the plugs are only learned by long experience. Most of the orders come from the Southern negro ‘crap-shooters.’ They are exceedingly particular about the dice they use, and require only a slight percentage in their favour. If dice were too pronounced on the side of the shooter, suspicion would be at once aroused.

Arabella : ‘ Be quiet, Fido, anyone to see you barking like that would think Mr Jones wanted to steal something !’