Biographies & History in Gambling
Authors
Products
Gambling
James Harold Romain
Or, fortuna, her temple and shrine. The true philosophy and ethics of gambling.
Excerpt from the publisher's note:
Mr. Romain's book, ... is replete with learning, and original in conception. The philosophy is broad and the tone dignified. Patient research is manifest in every page. Every branch of knowledge has been made to contribute its force to the argument. The work is a mine of information in political speculation, social science and moral philosophy. Mr. Romain is obviously in sympathy with the widest possible circle of culture. For that reason, if for no other, what he has to...
The Ethics of Gambling
William Douglas Mackenzie
Excerpt from the preface:
The vice of gambling is not so generally spread through the American nation as it is in several European countries, but it is spreading gradually even here and is tolerated in its seemingly innocent forms where one would not expect to find it. It is time that the matter should receive the earnest study of all who have the highest good of their country at heart.
- Preface
- Chapter I The Need For A Theory Of Gambling
- Chapter II The Act Of Gambling Analyzed
- Chapter III The Economic Nature Of The Act
- Chapter IV The Moral Quality Of The Act
- Chapter V The Element...
The Gambler's Life
Jonathan H. Green
Or the life, adventures, and personal experience of Jonathan H. Green.
It commences at his parentage and gives the whole history of the Life of the Reformed Gambler from the time of his birth until his reformation and conversion. It is a book designed as a warning to the young men of this country and is one that all should read and take warning and advice from. Beautifully illustrated from various scenes in the course of his life.
- Preface
- The Gambler's Life
- Prentage
- Elopement
- Bad company
- Game of Thimbles—Stool Pigeon—Betting
- A Mother's Dying Charge
- Mental Agony from Unjust...
Sucker's Progress
Herbert Asbury
An informal history of gambling in America from the colonies to Canfield.
Inside flap:
Sucker's Progress is the first attempt to write a connected history of the most prevalent of venial sins, and traces the history and development of gambling in America from the card and dice games in the back rooms of colonial taverns to the days of Richard Canfield the last of the great American gamblers. The book is concerned with the picturesque and spectacular features of gambling, and only incidentally with its morals.
The author commences with a survey of the origin and development of the principal...
Life Staked at Cards
Henry Meyer
A sketch of the life of Henry Meyer a converted gambler.
Henry Meyer was by his own account a very successful gambler who would play predominantly in Europe. One day he played against a young man and won all his money. Subsequently, that young man took his own life. At that point, Meyer realized that the young man was his younger brother. This charring experience made him give up gambling completely.
While I don't doubt that Meyer was a professional gambler who would later reform and give up gambling, the story with his brother rings a bit too fantastic. It is hard to believe that he and...
American Gambling and Gamblers
Hugh S. Fullerton
This is an excellent series of articles on the history of gambling in America. Excerpt from the introduction:
These articles are the result of long travels in many parts of the United States. They are real contributions of human and public interest.
- Preying Upon the Wage Earners
- How They Prey Upon One Another
- Where Every Boy Had to Learn Poker
- Gambling "Commercialized" and Organized
- "Square" Gamblers all "Broke"
- The Story of Hot Springs
- Politics and "Business" Worked for "the Game"
- The "Open" Season of 1912-13
- Something Bound to Happen
- As the "Straight" Gamblers Saw It
- Why...
In a New York Gambling-House
Stephen Sutcliffe
The actual experiences of a visitor to the most famous gaming resort in the American metropolis.
Excerpt from the introduction:
In those elegant fictitious biographies which our ancestors used to write, the hero was never considered properly ingratiated into the reader's sympathies until he had spent an evening, at least, in a gaming-house, and had come away more or less crumpled and despoiled. Now, a great deal has been said on this same subject in New York, during recent months, and one establishment of the sort - which we will call Danfield's, because that is not precisely its name...
The Old-Time Train Gambler
George Jean Nathan
Stories of card and revolver play, told by a man who "worked" the trains with his confederates in the days when stakes ran high.
If one believes this account, then a lot of the crooked gambling on trains was simply theft at gunpoint rather than sophisticated sleight-of-hand card advantage play.
1st edition 1910, PDF 7 pages.
The Life of Mason Long the Converted Gambler
Mason Long
Being a record of his experience as a white slave; a soldier in the Union Army; a professional gambler; a patron of the turf; a variety theater and minstrel manager; and, finally, a convert to the Murphy Cause, and to the Gospel of Christ.
This book is an illustration of this paragraph by S.W. Erdnase:
Hazard at play carries sensations that once enjoyed are rarely forgotten. The winnings are known as "pretty money," and it is generally spent as freely as water. The average professional who is successful at his own game will, with the sublimest unconcern, stake his money on that of another's, though...
The Autobiography of an Old Sport: Fifty years at the Card Table
Harry P. Dodge
The record of a career famous for adventure and vicissitude, and in which the jester won more tricks than the gamester.
- Preface
- Chapter I: Birth And Early Peregrinations
- Chapter II: Becoming A Patron Of The Pasteboards
- Chapter III: Early Times On The Mississippi
- Chapter IV: Getting A Sobriquet And Meeting Great Men
- Chapter V: The Turnpikes, The Packets And The Inns
- Chapter VI: Initiated In The Sons Of Malta
- Chapter VII: From The Green Mountains To Pike's Peak
- Chapter VIII: With The Bold Soldier Boys
- Chapter IX: The Fraternity Of Gamesters
- Chapter X: To Point A Moral And Adorn A...
The Amazing World of John Scarne
John Scarne
The Amazing World of John Scarne holds revelations and experiences in gambling, magic, carnival and show business; together with startling disclosures about hypnotism, extra-sensory perception and other mental effects.
The once world's number one expert on gambling tells in this no-punches-pulled, startlingly frank book the whole inside story of gambling, and reveals all the dodges, gimmicks and tricks used by cheaters at dice, cards, roulette and other games of chance. His sensational revelations extend also to magic and escape tricks, to the chicaneries of carnivals and even to the blasting...
The Mafia Conspiracy
John Scarne
Some say that John Scarne worked with and for the Mafia, because gambling and the Mafia are often thought as tightly linked. Others will be convinced by Scarne's collection of facts and reasoning in this ebook, that there never was a Mafia. Either way you read this ebook, it is a fascinating recollection of past events around crime, politics and gambling.
You might ask why is this ebook in the gambling section? The reason is twofold. One, Scarne details several interesting gambling facts and stories in this ebook (ex. a gambling glossary), and two it helps to understand the person John Scarne...
The Odds Against Me
John Scarne
If he'd had a touch of larceny in him, he could have been the number one card sharp of all time. Instead, the author of these fabulous memoirs, born to a mother who considered gambling the "devil's tool," puts his extraordinary gifts to far different purpose.
He has used his incredible gambling sense, his miraculously dexterous fingers, his brilliant mathematical mind, his fascination with carnival and gambling life, to become America's number one authority on gambling and odds.
He was the greatest practitioner and analyst of card and dice sleight of hand. His artistry impressed FDR as...