The Gaming Table: Its Votaries and Victims. Volume 1 (of 2)Steinmetz, Andrew
History
The Gaming Table: Its Votaries and Victims. Volume 1 (of 2)
Steinmetz, Andrew
Gambling
'In the gambling house in Broadway, near the New York Hotel, I have
often noticed a young man, apparently of some 18 or 20 years of age,
fashionably dressed, and of prepossessing appearance. On some days he
would play very high, and seemed to have most remarkable luck; but he
always played with the air of an old gamester, seeming careless as to
whether he won or lost. One night he lost so heavily that he attracted
the notice of all the players; every stake of his was swept away; and he
still played on until his last dollar was lost; then he quietly walked
out, whistling a popular Yankee air. He was there next day _MINUS_ his
great-coat and watch and chain--he lost again, went out and returned
in his shirt sleeves, having pawned his coat, studs, and everything he
could with decency divest himself of. He lost everything; and when I
next saw him he was selling newspapers in front of the post-office!
'The mania for gambling is a most singular one. I have known a man to
win a thousand dollars in a few hours, and yet he would not spend a
dollar to get a dinner, but when he felt hungry he went to a baker's
shop and bought a loaf of bread, and that same night lost all his money
at Roulette.
'There is another house on the corner of Centre and Grand Streets, open
during night and day. The stakes here are the same as in the one in
Broadway, and the people who play are very much the same--in fact, the
same faces are constantly to be met with in all the gambling houses,
from the highest to the lowest. When a gambler has but small capital, he
will go to a small house, where small stakes are admissible. I saw a
man win 50 or 60 dollars at this place, and then hand in his checks
(markers) to be cashed. The dealer handed him the money, and said--"Now
you go off, straight away to Union Square, and pay away all you have
won from here to John Morrissey. This is the way with all of them; they
never come here until they are dead broke, and have only a dirty
dollar or so to risk." There was some truth in what he said, but
notwithstanding he managed to keep the bank going on. There is a great
temptation to a man who has won a sum of money at a small gambling house
to go to a higher one, as he may then, at a single stake, win as much as
he could possibly win if he had a run of luck in a dozen stakes at the
smaller bank.
'In No. 102, in the Bowery, there is one of the lowest of the gaming
houses I have seen in the Empire city. The proprietor is an Irishman;
he employs three men as dealers, and they relieve one another every four
hours during the day and night. The stakes here are of the lowest, and
the people to be seen here of the roughest to be found in the city. The
game is Faro, as elsewhere.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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