Gambling

An account of faro gambling and cheating in New York City.

The newspaper that ran this article is not known. The time frame of the article is somewhere in the vicinity of 1890.

PDF 3 pages.

This work covers a lot of ground, from various parlor tricks, chemical tricks, card tricks, to a section on two person codes, and a section on artifices of cardsharks.

• description Of The Magician's Table
• How To Make A Person Jump
• The Invisible Chicken, Or Enchanted Egg Bag, As Performed By The Celebrated Wyman
• Scrap, Or Blowing Book, As Performed By Potter
• Gun Cotton - How Prepared
• Sympathetic Inks
• Apparatus For Writing In The Dark
• Dancing Turkeys
• The Self-Balanced Pail
• Sympathetic Lamp
• The Gas Candle
• Ice Made In A Red Hot Vessel
• Magical Colours
• The Magic Nosegay Blowing At The...

This booklet was most likely published around 1920 and describes a number of games of chance and how they are being rigged or operated to cheat:

• Dice
• Three Card Monte
• Shell Game
• Faro
• Drop Case
• Paddle Wheel
• The O'Leary Belt
• The Striker
• Upright Roulette Wheel
• Bee Hive
• Spindles

A classic in gambling literature.

• Introductory
• Chapter I: Early Days
• Chapter II: Early Days
• Chapter III: Profession
• Chapter IV: The Club
• Chapter V: Captain William Smith
• Chapter VI: Diplomacy
• Chapter VII: Major George Jenks
• Chapter VIII: Faro
• Chapter IX: Departure
• Chapter X: Phantoms Of The Memory
• Chapter XI: Wheeling
• Chapter XII: "On To Richmond"
• Chapter XIII: The Horse
• Chapter XIV: Washington City
• Chapter XV: Inventors
• Chapter XVI: Incubi
• Chapter XVII: Sharpers
• Chapter XVIII: Scenes At Long Branch
• Chapter XIX: Second-Class "Skinning-Houses"
• Chapter XX: Sharpers
• Chapter...

This ebook exposes the scams and swindles used by carnival midway cheats, street gangs, road hustlers, and crooked mail-order businesses to cheat the public. Written by a Chicago police detective.

Many of these scams are still in use today. But please don't read this ebook to cheat -- instead, use it for your own protection, so you don't become the next victim.

Colorfully written, this handy guidebook ebook reveals the true-life scams, cons, swindles, ruses, devices and methods of the cheats and how they were taken down and brought to justice. Also includes descriptions of rigged carnival...

This is a treatise on the sucker effects of the Three Card Monte. It starts with an intro by Nate Leipzig, includes a definition of gambling terms and goes on to explain moves, routines and schemes to work the Three Card Monte. John Scarne was a master in performing and demonstrating this sucker effect. Learn everything about it in this digital reproduction, either to be aware of the various ways this can be played and thus be protected, or to learn to perform it for entertainment purposes.

From the preface by Nate Leipzig:

This is a sound gambling primer covering Blackjack, Bingo, Poker, Craps, Gin, Lotteries and Sweepstakes, Horseracing, Keno, Numbers, Slot Machines and Roulette. John also touches in various places on cheating and game protection.

From the inside flap of the book:

This little gem of a book consists of five chapters - with prudent advice backed up by years of painful observation and field work. Are you a winner?

• Does everyone you know seem to be having more sex than you?
• Do your facial expressions give away your intentions?
• Do you know when to "cut your losses?"

Illustrations by Muriel Alvarez.

1st edtion 2007; 63 pages.

A false cut that uses the action of burning a card as misdirection. Particularly useful for cheating at BlackJack.

Chuck Smith was recorded doing this cut. (A letter from Chuck Smith to Brick Tilley is reproduced in the PDF.) He used it to beat players during the years of WWII. The sequence of actions is the following. You first openly cut the cards and complete the cut. Then you take the top card, turn it face up and place it as the bottom card. During the action of burning the top card you undo the cut. The demo video will prove how honest and fair this looks.

You will receive a PDF...

The first part consists of stories about cardsharks and other crooks from Robert-Houdin's recollections. This is very readable and an entertaining part of the work. The second part explains some of the technical details of the methods used by cardsharks. However, the methods are for the most part only described in very rudimentary form. As Robert-Houdin writes himself, this is not meant as a way to teach you how to do it, but merely to give the reader insight in how the different ruses are accomplished. Nevertheless, it provides interesting insight into the ways and means of cardsharks.

This...

This ebook takes an academic look at the second deal and its use at the card table, specifically in the game of Texas Hold’em poker. This is achieved by first examining the mathematical rules of the second deal. These rules are then applied to the basic structure of Texas Hold’em and the use of the move is advanced by also considering poker strategy. In addition to this, the probabilities of dealing target cards, when using a binary marking system, are derived. The use of the second deal in conjunction with stacking techniques is also considered, with a focus on the block transfer. Whilst...

The Score is an ebook that teaches a special playing card marking system inspired by a concept probably as old as playing cards. The system has been re-thought and re-mastered by Daniel Madison with help from sleight of hand junkie Randall Freeman and a retired card cheat who wishes to remain anonymous.

The Score markings system teaches you how to mark any deck of cards that has a white border, such as standard Bicycle Rider backs, Mandolines and Bee Stingers - we'd list all of those decks here but there are far too many to mention!

The Score is a minimalistic system; two simple tiny marks...

This is a fun book to read. Great stories about pickpockets, burglars, bunco men, thiefs, and others. Houdini collected interesting cases talking to detectives, and police chiefs. The book describes the methods used to scam innocent victims. Some of these schemes are still popular, which shows again, that one can learn a lot from the past.

published 1906 by Harry Houdini, Boston MA; later reprinted by Gamblers Book Club, Las Vegas; 96 pages

Table of Contents

page

3. Preface
7. Shot One - Income of a Criminal
12. Shot Two - Professional Burglary
19. Shot Three - Difficulties of Burglary
25. Shot Four...

A classic textbook containing numerous swindles for those who desire to take down and rope the public! It is unique in that it has the only written description of the coin purse swindle - complete with photographs. Many of these cons are being used today, some with minor changes and some exactly as they were played when Rich Uncle was written. There are monte mobs working today in the same manner they worked a hundred years ago.

published 1911 by The Exchange Press, Melbourne; later reprinted by Gamblers Book Club, Nevada; 64 pages

Table of Contents

page

3. Foreword
5. Rich Uncle from Fiji Yarn ...

This book is one of the classic books in gambling. It is an autobiography and describes Jonathan Green's conversion from a gambler to an exposer and teacher.

Among others it exposes: game of thimbles; diamond cut diamond, or the gentleman's game; Dead open and shut; church gambling; five aces beaten; lotteries; post office game; pound cake, or ring game; the preacher and the gambler; grab loo.

It commences by showing how he became a gambler - why he resolved to reform - destruction of his gambling instruments - he makes restitution - the question of reformation - his conversion - unites with...

This ebook presents an analytical review of works on card cheating that are written in English and published before 1900. Given this scope, The Reference Guide to Early Works on Card Cheating takes 151 publications, and documents the card cheating techniques that they describe. Only card techniques discussed in the context of cheating at card games are considered. The 146 defined techniques are used to evaluate the publications based on their breadth and their contribution to the literature. The breadth is indicated by the absolute number of techniques each work describes, and the contribution...

A step by step system that can make you a millionaire in less than 12 months.

HOW DOES IT WORK?

Have you heard a saying that goes something like: 'back favorites and lose your money?' Again, do yourself a favor and ignore it.

This Betting Plan may seem frustrating at times, because some of the dividends are small, but you must be disciplined and follow it step by step. Do not deviate from the formula, not even if someone tells you a horse is a sure thing?

This system involves backing favorites. But it is done with a set procedure and it is the Staking Plan that is the key to making...

From the back cover:

This is the book that tells the truth about cards, dice, punch boards, gambling wheels, races, and all other kinds of gambling.

Don't be a sucker! The Open Book reveals how crooked gamblers, cheats, and con artists fleece the innocent and unwary public out of thousands of dollars daily. Even that carnival game at the local fairgrounds may not be as innocent as it looks. Get the inside scoop.

Valuable secrets of marked cards, gaffed dice, ink formulas, holdouts and other cheating devices -- all clearly explained. Also included are scams and cons used by the unscrupulous to bilk the unwary....

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.

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...

This is one of the best explanations of the Three Shell Game or Thimble Rig including 24 moves and 3 full routines. Jack Lamonte has drawn 86 clear illustrations to make studying the moves and routines a lot easier.

Excerpt from the introduction:

[Note: You will also be able to download a facsimile version of this manuscript.]

1st edition 1959, 30 pages; 1st digital edition 2013, 49 pages....

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...

A great book on the tricks of the trade of professional gamblers, how they cheat and get an advantage in the game. From the introduction:

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:

This is essentially a small excerpt from Quinn's primary work Fools of Fortune. A couple of chapters have been taken, some incomplete, together with endorsements and other promotional material, to produce this volume.

1st edition 1895; PDF 68 pages.

Also titled The Gentlemen's Hand-book of Poker, it is an excellent introduction to the game of poker. It not only covers the rules and some advice on how to play, but it also has a short chapter on cheating, a decent chapter on probabilities, and ends with a number of fun poker stories.

The chapter on probabilities corrects some of what Steinmetz wrote in The Gaming Table Volume 2. The book ends with an anecdote about the compiler himself.

• Preface
• Draw Poker
  • Introduction
  • Origin Of The Game
  • The Game
  • The Stakes
  • The Ante
  • The Hands
  • Playing A Hand Pat
  • The Hands Illustrated
  • The Draw
  • The Draw To Two Pairs
  • The Draw...

Here's an entertaining, 25- to 60-minute lecture that you, the magician or mentalist, can present on the topic of scams and cons. And it's a money-maker.

Become an Expert on Cons and Swindles...
Or just talk like one. This is a new field for most magicians and mentalists, allowing you to give your lecture to civic groups, security seminars, government agencies, corporations -- anywhere people gather. And these organizations have deep pockets, too, able to pay you well for your time.

Fabled Bunco Games of History...
Now become practical, effective tricks in the magician's hands, each...

This second volume of The Gaming Table is from a magician's point of view much more interesting. It includes a history of dice and playing cards including a fairly detailed description of how playing cards were made. It has a chapter on fortune telling with cards. And it also features a surprisingly good chapter on card tricks with explanations for four sleights (false shuffle, false cut, glide, card change) and 18 very nice card tricks. Among them we find a version of the prearranged deck and two person codes.

For people interested in Erdnase it is interesting to note that at the beginning of the...

The full title of this work is The Gaming Table: Its votaries and victims in all times and countries, especially in England and in France. It is essentially a history of gambling detailing people and places. It does include some exposure of cheating, but most of that is told in volume 2.

• Preface
• CHAPTER I. The Universal Passion Of Gaming; Or, Gaming All The World Over.
• CHAPTER II. Gambling Among The Ancient Hindoos.—A Hindoo Legend And Its Modern Parallel.
• CHAPTER III. Gambling Among The Ancient Egyptians, Persians, And Greeks.
• CHAPTER IV. Gaming Among The Ancient Roman Emperors.
• CHAPTER...

A fairly detailed work on the rules and variations of draw poker. Also includes some advice on how to play the game successfully. This work includes Robert C. Schenck's rules for draw poker.

• PREFACE
• CHAPTER I
  • Introduction
  • The Element of Chance
  • The Question of Stakes
• CHAPTER II
  • Technical Terms
• CHAPTER III
  • The Order of Hands
  • The Straight
  • The Blaze
• CHAPTER IV
  • Rules of Draw Poker
  • The Limit
  • The Ante
  • The Straddle
  • The Deal
  • Betting Before the Draw
  • Discard and Draw
  • Betting After the Draw
• CHAPTER V
  • Jack Pots
  • Incidental Jack Pots
  • The "Buck"
  • Progressive Jack Pots
• CHAPTER VI
  • Freeze Out
• CHAPTER...

Originally entitled Artifice Ruse and Subterfuge at the Card Table, is probably the most cited and referenced book about card gambling moves - a classic in the history of magic literature. A must read for any card magician or aspiring gambling expert and an indespensable reference book. While the authorship of this book is hotly debated we are convinced it was Edward Gallaway. (For a detailed work on the search for Erdnase see Hurt McDermott's Artifice, Ruse & Erdnase.)

[A copy of this book is also included in Michael McDougall's Card Mastery. This ebook is also available in a German translation.

Paul Fleming wrote:

All grafts laid bare being a complete exposure of all gambling, graft and confidence games with stories illustrating the methods employed by the different operators.

This is a wonderful book on all things cheating at gambling (sleight-of-hand and machinery), various confidence games and other scams and crooked methods with several revealing illustrations.

• PREFACE
• ENDORSEMENTS
• INTRODUCTION
• EPITOME
• CHAPTER I Exposé of Gambling Devices
• CHAPTER II Exposé of Gambling Devices (Continued)
  • The Mechanical Hold-out Poker Table
  • The Revolving Poker Table
  • The Sleeve Hold-out
  • The Bug Hold-out ...

A wonderfully interesting confession of a con man who was a contemporary of Erdnase, and just like him operated for a time while traveling with small circuses in Illinois and surrounding states. Of particular interest is a full dialog of how an unsuspecting person on the train was lured into gambling 3 card monte. The dialog demonstrates how skillfully these operatives were and how well they understood human nature. Other cons are also described in detail.

Excerpt from the preface:

Reveals the inside story on how the con artist forces you, or a store, or even a bank teller to hand him too much change.

This bit of larceny gains the criminal five, ten, or more dollars each time -- and that from a $2 purchase. Also shows how to keep from being shortchanged. Almost defies detection, and practically works itself. This is no pie-in-the-sky con. Newspaper and TV stories report that victims of every age and ethnicity are taken in by this technique.

Audiences are hungry for this information, to avoid being "taken." Makes an excellent lecture to provide to banks, stores, senior...

From the preface and introduction:

This is probably the best short-change swindle every created. In his younger years, Devin Knight worked at a carnival doing Robert Nelson's Horoscope Pitch. During his stint with the carnival, he met a professional short-change artist, who showed him the most ingenious short-change scam Devin had ever seen. It made the scammer $10.00 every time he walked into a store and bought an inexpensive item.

Devin was familiar with the sometimes crude short-change methods used by carnies, but he had never seen a swindle as sophisticated as this one. The scammer would very slowly and deliberately count...