Cheating, Scams & Protection

A card detective revelations of gambler's secrets.

MacDougall, who refers to himself as magician and card detective, tells of years of tracking down crooks, phony devices, and manipulations in every sort of gambling field. He shares anecdotes of various experiences, and explains several cardshark methods and moves including:

• Culling and Palming
• The Slip Cut
• Bottom Dealing
• Second Dealing and Sort Edge Cards
• The Haymaker Shuffle
• The False Riffle
• The Crimp
• Trick Stacking And A Misdeal
• The Interlacing Riffle

1st edition 1939, 167 pages; PDF 91 pages.

1st edition 2019, 8 pages.

1st edition 2019, PDF 4 pages + 2 videos

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...

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 ...

1st edition 1863; PDF 5 pages.

...

• Dice and measuring tools to make sure they were properly manufactured.
• Game layouts
• Marked cards
• Crooked dealing boxes
• Holdouts
• Books on gambling
• and more

1st edition 1961, 77 pages.

Written in a breezy style, "Mickey" MacDougall takes the reader along for an entertaining and informative ride as he consults with casino bosses and card room owners to stamp out cheaters and grifters.

Swindlers take many forms and purvey their trade anywhere people gather: aboard trains and cruise ships, at the racetrack, in back alleys, military...

Written for the craps player, King delivers the facts in such a way that the dice player will understand and be able to instantly recognize the principal forms of cheating now in use.

The author has eliminated what is usually the bulk of other gambling books - including historical background, rules of the game, statistics, anecdotes, memoirs, and moral admonitions. Instead, he cuts to the chase with the exact methods used by dice cheats, so that you may understand and protect yourself...

PDF
3 Disk Monte is a variation of the street hustle often played with cards. Three black face down disks, one with a white dot, are mixed. The spectator tries to guess which disk is the one with the white dot. The disks have increasingly gained popularity due to their visibility and handling. This PDF illustrates and describes the various sleights that can be used while performing this effect. Topics include the basics plus some of the more advanced moves that can be used.

• The Disks
• The Mat
• Working Height
• The...

• Casino supplies
• Trade Stimulators
• Pocket Novelties
• Amusement Park Supplies
• Fair Ground Games
• Shooting Galleries

1st edition 1929, 160 pages.

1st edition 1909, 64 pages.

• 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...

It has been my fortune, or misfortune, whichever you wish to term it, to have traveled a good deal and to have observed not a little. I have engaged in more than one business; it pleased my fancy, and can say, with a pardonable pride, that I have met with some degree of success. During the past few years of my life I have studied human nature in all its phases, from its lowest forms in the gutter, in the slums, in the gilded dens of vice, in the gambling...

A history of the vice in ancient and modern times, and in both hemispheres; an exposition of its alarming prevalence and destructive effects; with an unreserved and exhaustive disclosure of such frauds, tricks and devices as are practiced by "professional" gamblers, "confidence men" and "bunko steerers."

Jonathan H. Green was a reformed gambler, who made a career exposing cheating via lectures, presentations and books.

If you are looking for an edited version and somewhat modernized rendition of this book you can find it here.

• Chapter I
  • Invention Of Cards
  • Mysterious Trick Of Thirty Six Cards; Telling The Card You Look At Without Seeing The Pack ...

1st edition 1895; PDF 68 pages.