Dice, faro and roulette are the principal games of the gambling house
and, considering these, the experienced player will tell you that he
is suspicious of a "petey" in the dice box, a "high layout" in faro,
and a "squeezed wheel" in roulette, in just the proportion that the
gambling house keeper has not recognized that he cannot indulge them
because of the fear of detection. The gambler holds to the gambler's
view of the gambler--and it is not complimentary to the profession.
That the gentleman gambler is justified in his attitude toward the
gentleman player, too, has been shown in the New York revelations.
There one gentleman player, loser to the extent of $300,000.
compromised with the "bank" for 130 bills of $1,000 denomination.
There a gentleman player who had lost $69,000 to the bank tried to
compromise on $20,000, but was in a position where the bank could
hold him. How much the gambler king may loan and lose in the course
of a year scarcely can be approximated. The gambling debt is "a debt
of honor," and even in business not all such debts are paid. Whether
a borrowed debt or a debt of loss to the bank, this honor is the
security, unless in emergency the gambler king discovers that he can
blackmail with safety to his interests as a whole.
In general, the gambler who is "on the square" operates on a 10 per
cent basis for his bank. In addition there is the "unknown per cent"
which is his at the end of the year. The roulette wheel, for example,
presents to the player just one chance in thirty-seven of winning on a
single play, while the winning on that play is paid in the proportion
of only 34 to 1.