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., 12/. los., 61. Ss., 31. 2s. 6d., 11. 11s. 3d., 15s. 7d. (fractions of a penny not being allowed, I suppose 1), and, lastly, 7s. 9d.; nine stakes, or eight doublings in all. It is so utterly unlikely, says the believer in this system, that where the chances are practically equal on two events, the same event will be repeated nine times running, that I may safely apply this method, gaining at each venture (' though really there is no risk at all ') 7s. 9d., until at last I shall accumulate in this way a small fortune, which in time will become a large fortune.
The proprietors of gambling houses naturally encourage this pleasing delusion. They call this power of varying the stakes a very important advantage possessed by the player at such tables. They say, truly enough, a single player would not wager if the stakes could be varied in this manner, and he possessed no power of refusing any offer between such limits. Since a single player would refuse to allow this arrangement, it is manifest the arrangement is a privilege. Being a
privilege, it is worth paying for. It is on this account that we poor bankers, who oblige those possessed of gambling propensities by allowing them to exercise their tastes that way, must have a certain small percentage of odds in our favor. Thus at rouge-et-noir ,trente-et-un, through
us equally well: but even then we do not win what is on the table; the refait may go against us, when the players save their stakes, and if we win we only win what has been staked on one color,' and so forth. These who like gambling, too, and so like to believe that the bankers are strictly fair, adopt this argument. Thus the editor of The Westminster Paper says: ' The Table at all games has an extra chance, a chance varying from one zero at one table to two at another; that is a chance every player understands when he sits down to play, and it is perfectly fair and honest (!) That this advantage over a long series must tell is as certain as that two and two make four. But the bank does not always win; on the contrary,' we often ' hear of the bank being broken and closed until more cash is forthcoming. The number of times the bank loses and nothing is said about it, would amount to a considerable number of times in the course of a year. A small percentage on one side or the other, extended over a long enough series, will tell; but on a single event the difference in the gambler's eyes' (yes, truly, in his eyes) 'is small. For that percentage the punter is
out some such advantage, no one would permit his ,adversaries thus to vary the stakes. The punter' (poor moth !) ' is willing to pay for this advantage.'
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