Evening Star Newspaper, June 9, 1929, Page 94

B THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, P. T, _]UNE‘ 9, YO20PART ?. R PSS You Can’'t Beat a Crooked Game! BY HARRY GOLDBERG. UNCAN MACLEOD stood recently in the smoking room of the liner Majestic reading the notice tacked on the wall which warned all per- sons not to play cards with strang- ers. He is the father of two boys in their 20's, and he did not forget to put his sons also on their guard. It was dun weather out of Southampton, and the trip promised to be dull. He met an affable stranger—a big copper man from Mon- tana—in the smoking room, and, becoming friendly, the good-hearted and genial West- erner warned his Scottish friend about the gamblers who were sure to be on board. Some other people drifted in, friends of the man from Montana or mere 5hlpboard. ac- quaintances, and they chatted into a sociable ame of hearts. . MacLeod won $65. They played again next day, and when the crowd scattered MacLeod was $100 to the good. Meceting in the tearoom of the restaurant another day, play was resumed. Before Mac- ‘Leod knew it he was in a stiff game. 7JHE play was fast. MacLeod began to owe money and offered his check. They assured him his paper was good and persuaded him to stay in the game. Before he woke up suffi- ‘ciently to quit he was out $4,500 and drew a «check for that amount. MacLeod was not licked yet. He wanted to get it back and the next day he lost $5,500 ore. mOut $10,000, MacLeod remembered the warn- ing on the board and decided he had been trimmed. Not having any false pride, MacLeod determined to find out if he hndklostnln an honest e or to a gang of crooks. e re- ported moss as soon as the boat docked and found that he had been playing with profes- ‘sionals. Payment was stopped on the checks, but ‘MacLeod still had the $165 which he had won in cash. This was turned over to a seaman's ‘charity. ch'(“MxiLeod's case was unusual,” said Edward ‘F. Mallon, chief special agent of the Interna- tional Mercantile Marine, who investigated the incident. “The game of the gamblers is to take a man’s money in one big sweep for a clean-up. Invariably the loser does not play again, and if he suspects he has been bilked he fears that ‘exposure of the fact will injure his business igtanding, so he does not report it. «But MacLeod came back a second time, and ‘it was his loss then that made him suspicious. MacLeod’s experience is not an isolated case. ‘Although it is impossible to figure the sums, because much of the playing takes place in private cabins, yet we are certain that the ‘gamblers’ winnings each year run up into very Jarge amounts. “Evidence of the fact has never been un- ‘covered, but all our experience leads us to believe that a syndicate or syndicates with headquarters here and abroad are behind the 150 to 200 gamblers who constantly work the Ytransatlantic liners. “Whether they win or have been unable to hook a sucker, this fraternity always seems to have plenty of money and, since ferrying across the ocean is an expensive luxury, somebody ‘must stake these men to the cost of the trips. “The professional gambler is not a type. He may look like anything from a bum to a bank president, but he always has plenty of money ‘and spends it freely. “A trip back and forth across the Atlantic ‘with hotel expenses in between boats will cost ‘s man $1,000 or $1,500. We have a record here of one gambler who made a dozen cross- ings between the 1st of February and the 1st ‘of July. . “These sharpers do not work alone. Gam- bling is their business and they plan to take ‘s profit out of every trip. When you sit down in a game with them it is usually three against ‘one and, since they are highly skilled in their ‘ealling, it is no longer necessary for them to use crooked methods in order to 1yb the sucker. “As individuals they are generglly much bet- ter players than the person they are playing ,vmh, so that when three of them combine to make a killing the victim rarely realizes that *he has been skinned. “Never Play Cards With Strangers Aboard Ship,” Is the Advice to Vacationists From Edward F. Mallen of the International Mercantile Marine. ¢POKER has long ago passed out of the transatlantic picture. Virtually every one plays bridge, and this is the most popular game on shipboard. With doubling and redoubling, a game quickly runs into money. Not so long ago one prominent baker was taken for $30,000. “Another fact which leads us to believe that they work under the auspices of a syndicate is that the same trio is rarely found together on successive trips, nor do they repeat at the same table on following trips. “The biggest haul ever known to be made on a ship was the taking of $68,000 from a big business man in a single night. or two small games in which the sucker wins usually precede the big killing, and they are always willing to take checks, because of fear of arous- ing the man’s suspicions.- “The average man keeps quiet about his losses. He does not let himself be led to the loss of $5,000 or $10,000 unless he can afford it. And then he does not want it to be known in his community or business circles that he has been unwise enough to permit professional gamblers to fleece him out of considerable money. Such men say nothing about the game and charge the loss to experience. “These sharpers do not hesitate to take a [ E of the cleverest stunts pulled off was the scheme of the drunken youth, ac- companied by an older friend who looked after him, but persuaded the remainder of the pas- sengers that he could do nothing about the boy’s drinking and that to oppose his gambling was only to increase the drunkard’'s stubborn- ness. “The boy began to play with a person who had a cold eye and the slick smoothness which is usually associated with professional card sharps. The passengers who gathered about this game protested that the young man would be robbed. He did lose money steadily in small amounts. His friend persisted in his indifference, and when the game was moved to a private cabin a few of the crowd, indig- nant and with blood in their eyes, went along to make certain that the boy would not be picked clean. “At the end of the evening the men who were so solicitious about the drunken youth had lost several thousand dollars. When the story was told to me and I got the names of the crowd I found that the boy and his friend were two of the smartest operators in that racket and that the kid didn't drink and couldn’t afford to. His work required nerves of steel Inside Methods of the Card Sharks Are Revealed—the Gamblers Nowadays Are Experts in Psychology and They Matke a Specialty of the Subtle Arts of Friendship- Making—Bridge Takes the Place of Poker—II “omen in Games. man off the ship if that seems a better way of trimming him, Several years ago a trio of gamblers persuaded a representative of the Norwegian government to go to Troy, N. Y., with them. They rigged up a fake joint with supposed wires to the races and fleeced that man out of $168,000 and then beat it to Canada. “We extradited the gamblers and got ready to put them on trial, but the official evidently couldn’t afford the publicity, because he never turned up in court, and the men were released. “Gamblers are usually experts in psychology. They know how to make friends, and in most cases they not only win, but retain the friendly feeling of the man whose money they have taken. “The use of women as a decoy is apparently only an occasional trick. One incident that I recall is the story of the woman who made friends with a man and when she and her partner got him into the smoking room for a game she sat behind the sucker reading a book. “Her pal, across the table, faced her. She read the sucker’s hand, and the manner in which she turned the pages told her partner how to handle his cards. “What often happens is that the victim meets separately the men who are to fleece him. And he is maneuvered into introducing the gang to each other. This makes him so unsus- picious that it is difficult very often to make a man believe that he has been skinned, he is so certain of the good will of the men who have taken his money. and he was always cold sober. He had put on an act and no one who watched him had sus- pected it. “However, it is the women who are the cleverest in the art of pretending to be some- thing eise. Women are rarely experts in the handling of cards, but they are successful in leading a lamb to be fleeced. “There were two sisters who worked on one of the ocean ferries. They spotted the money and then rounded up the victim for their menfolk to make a clean-up. These girls would lure & man to the cardroom and then stand around the table where their pals were playing and watch the game. “There were no empty chairs, but with the constant repetition of remarks suggesting that she would like a seat one of the men would be polite enough to offer the girl his place at the table. “She would play indifferently for a time, neither losing much nor winning much, and then she would follow it up with persifiage about her ignorance of the game and her poor luck until the boob was persuaded he ought to take her place. “When the fall guy sat down the combina- tion went into action and he was hooked for everything they could get. “As most games now take place in private eabins or semiprivate rooms, it gives the female deooy opportunities to work without great pub- licity. One gag that has been worked is the scheme of high-hatting the person who has been selected to give up his roll. “The man apparently makes the acquaintance of the girl under difficulties and with consid= erable condescension on her part. She lets him know that her name stands high in the soclal world and that a great favor has been con- ferred upon him to permit him to bask in her presence. “As a still greater favor, he is allowed, In 2 sudden emergency and for lack of another player, to fill in & hand at bridge. When the game is finished he has lined the pockets of the gamblers, “Americans fall hardest for titles and when the line is baited with the fictitious title of a sprig of nobility the victim swallows and is often glad to pay for the privilege of losing money to so distinguished a personage. ¢¢NJEARLY everybody plays cards nowadays, and as money is more plentiful than it used to be, the professional gamblers are reaping a harvest. The country has become saturated with rich bootleggers and oil millionaires, and very often they don’t care what happens to their cash. “I know & man who not so long ago couldn’t pay the rent of a cheap flat, but his wife and daughter recently spent a fortune on them- selves in Europe. He returned with them look~ ing for sport and he was not only willing but anxious to meet the gambling fraternity. They took more than $5,000 from the man, but he wouldn’t think of attempting to prosecute. He had enjoyed himself and considered that the game was worth what it cost him. “Gamblers have no difficulty in picking up cash once they discover its hiding place. Their principal concern is getting the right people to play with them. ‘They don’'t choose the game. They sit down with any man’s favorite game and beat him at it, because they are invariably three to his one. “Usually the money does not get back to the owner. If he refuses payment, they threaten to sue him or expose him as a welcher. If he can't afford the publicity or doesn’'t know that it is all a bluff, he pays. But sometimes they slip and the roll comes back. “A prominent Chinese merchant sat in & bridge game with a crowd who were a little dull. When one man slipped the Chinese dis= covered that they had been cheating him. He was in the hole for $3,400 and reported his loss to the purser. “I met the boat at quarantine, but found that the loser had changed his mind and would not proceed against the men who had taken his money. After some questioning, I learned that his life had been threatened if he squealed. “I persuaded him that his money could be recovered and that his life would be in no danger if he followed me. We went down to the cabin of the chief conspirator and I told him if he did not hand over the $3,400 he was in danger of receiving some lead. The money was turned over and then I warned the man that a future meeting would result in his suf- fering an accident from a bullet. He disap=- peared from the ocean. “The men who work the transatlantic lanes in the Summertime switch to the New York- Havana route in the Winter. Even when the notices are posted and the purser warns the passengers about certain men who are known to be professionals, there are people who think they can beat a crooked game and they sit down to play, knowing who their opponents are. “One man on the Cuban route lost $12,000, but he was sure he hadn't been trimmed, al- though he was warned in advance of his play, and he took his loss without attempting to retrieve it. “You can’t stop card-playing, because it s such a universally popular amusement, but if you want to be sure it is a friendly game don't forget the simple rule, ‘Never play cards with strangers on shipboard.’”” (Copyright. 19°0) Reclamation Cotton. THE irrigation work of the Department of the Interior was responsible for an ine creased cotton acreage during 1928, which brought the amount of cotton grown on recla- mation projects to 193,480 bales of lint and 89,936 tons of seed. The total yleld was worth $22,450,340, an increase of $6,000,000 over the preceding year. The best yleld was $104.09 an acre.