SACRAMENTO — Five people, including two from Modesto, were indicted Thursday for their involvement in a large illegal gambling ring that operated from 2006 to 2008 in several California counties, including San Joaquin, the U.S.

SINGAPORE : Criminal Investigation Department officers have busted a syndicate on which was operating an illegal gambling den at a funeral wake in Jurong West on Thursday.

Officials say the state’s gambling revenues will fall more than $11 million below previous estimates as financially struggling Rhode Islanders cut back on the purchase of lottery tickets and visits to slot parlors.

A Chinese auction is a type of auction (actually a combination of auction and raffle) that is typically featured at charity or other fundraising events.In a Chinese auction, bidders are not prospective buyers (as in the conventional English auction). Instead, they buy tickets, which are essentially chances to win items. Bidders may buy as many tickets as they like, and bid them on any item(s) they want by placing them in a basket or other container in front of the item(s) they are trying to win. At the conclusion of bidding, the winning ticket is drawn from the tickets bid on each item, and the item is given to the owner of that ticket.

A bidder may increase their chance of winning by buying and bidding more tickets on a specific item. Although there is generally no limit to the number of tickets a given individual may bid on a specific item, the chance of winning depends on the total number of tickets bid by all individuals.

It is unclear whether this type of auction actually originates in China; it is much more likely that the term derives from “chance auction,” which is also another name for this type of auction.

The Chinese auction is similar to the “silent auction,” with the difference being that in the silent auction bidders submit bids listing specific amounts that they are willing to pay for a specific item.

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Video: HSMAI Chinese Auction

An Australian gambler who lost millions in a A$1.4 billion (548.5 million pounds) gaming spree is suing one of the country’s largest casinos, claiming he was targeted by managers despite a known gambling addiction.

Nearly two-thirds of Colorado voters support Amendment 50, the measure aimed at expanding gambling in three former mining towns, a new poll shows.

A Calcutta Auction is an open auction held in conjunction with a golf tournament, horse race, or similar contest with multiple entrants. It is popular in Backgammon and is currently enjoying rising popularity for NCAA Basketball pools during March Madness.Bidding for each contestant begins in random order, with only one contestant being bid upon at any time. Accordingly, participants (originally in Calcutta, India, from where this technique was first recorded by the Colonial British) bid among themselves to “buy” each of the contestants, with each contestant being assigned to the highest bidder. The contestant will then pay out to the owner a predetermined proportion of the pool depending on how it performs in the tournament. While variations in payoff schedules exist, in an NCAA Basketball tournament (64 teams, single elimination) the payoffs could resemble the following schedule: 1 win – 0.25%, 2 wins – 2%, 3 wins – 4%, 4 wins – 8%, 5 wins – 16%, tournament winner with 6 wins – 32%.

The most interesting element of Calcutta Auctions is in determining an appropriate wager for each contestant, as the payoff will directly hinge on the size of the pot and thereby the size of the bids being placed. Thus the value of each team fluctuates during the course of the betting. For example, even if a bidder knew the Tar Heels would be the tournament winner and thus pay out 32% of the pool, she would still be unsure of the exact value of the team (unless it was the last team being bid on) as the payout would depend on the sum total of all winning bids.

This is similar to parimutuel betting, in that the winnings are awarded from the total pool of bets, but differs in that only one player can bet on any one contestant. However, a player may purchase as many contestants as they desire.

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Video: calcutta auction

Cash withdrawals on credit cards in gambling venues will be banned under laws to be introduced in the NSW parliament today. Gaming and Racing Minister Kevin Greene says changes to the Gaming Machines

The Griffin Book is a listing of known or suspected gambling cheaters and advantage players published by Griffin Investigations, a firm that monitors casinos. Those listed may be anyone perceived as a threat to the casino’s profits, including card counters, people who mark cards and those who try to cheat slot machines. The book keeps pictures either obtained from a photo of the individual when caught or from surveillance photos.

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The gambling industry has long been considered immune to downturns in the economy. But in southeastern Connecticut, two large casinos are feeling the pinch. One has laid off 700 workers, and the other is delaying an expansion that was to employ 1,200 construction workers.

Casino war is a casino card game based on the children’s game of War. The game is arguably one of the most easily understood casino card games, but it also has a relatively large house edge compared to other games.The game is normally played with six standard 52 card decks. The cards are ranked in the same way that cards in poker games are ranked, except that aces are always high.

The deal

After the player has placed a bet, the dealer and the player are each dealt one card.

• If the player’s card is ranked higher than the dealer’s, the player wins even money.
• If the dealer’s card is ranked higher than the player’s, the player loses the bet to the house.

Ties

A tie occurs when the dealer and the player each have cards of the same rank. In a tie situation, the player has two options:

• The player can surrender, in which case the player loses half the bet.
• The player can go to war, in which case the player must place an additional wager the same size as the first wager.

Going to war

If the player goes to war, the dealer burns three cards before dealing each of them an additional card. If the player’s card is ranked higher than or the same as the dealer’s, then the player wins an amount equal to the size of the original bet only. If the dealer’s card is ranked higher than the player’s, the player loses both the original bet and the “going to war” bet.

House advantage

The dealer and the player each have a 50% chance of winning, so this seems like an even money game. The house advantage, however, comes from what happens in the case of a tie.

Some casinos offer a bonus payout in the event of a tie after going to war.

The house advantage increases with the number of decks in play and decreases in casinos who offer a bonus payout. The house advantage for this game is over 2%.

Strategy

Surrendering has a slightly higher advantage for the house, so a player should never surrender.

References

• Brisman, Andrew. American Mensa Guide to Casino Gambling: Winning Ways (Stirling, 1999) ISBN 080694837X

Links

• Wizard of Odds – Casino War Strategy and Odds
• Gambling il dado article

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Video: Casino War at Betfair Casino

Maine’s Gambling Control Board is considering whether to allow Sunday morning gambling at the state’s only casino… © 2000 – 2008 Community Broadcasting Service. All Rights Reserved.

Skill With Prizes (SWP) machines are a subset of slot machines, in which the payout a player receives is dependent on a game of skill rather than just luck.One common type of SWP game is the Quiz machine – where a player has to answer a number of trivia questions to win money.

There are other types, where a video game of some sort is played. Titles in this category include The Crystal Maze and Word Up.

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A Lynnwood man was arrested Thursday morning for his part in an illegal gambling operation. Undercover agents from the Washington State Gambling Commission have been working for more than a year to develop the case against the man, 50, and a Bellevue man, 63, spokeswoman Jeannette Sugai said.

WALLER COUNTY – On Thursday, Oct. 16, agents and officers with the Waller County Sheriff’s Office, Texas Department of Public Safety, and Waller County District Attorney’s Office finalized a lengthy undercover investigation of illegal gambling establishments in Waller County.

Reality

On December 24, 1954 the American blues musician Johnny Ace shot himself to death in Texas playing Russian roulette in a dressing room before a concert.

John Hinckley, Jr. was known to play Russian Roulette, alone, on two occasions (although neither time he pulled the trigger was the bullet in the firing chamber). Hinckley also took a picture of himself in 1980 pointing a gun at his head.

On February 28, 2000, Rashaad, A 19-year-old Houston resident attempted to play Russian roulette with a semi-automatic pistol, apparently unaware that the mechanics of the game change with a weapon other than a revolver. However, the Darwin Award sources are often suspect. [2]

On June 12, 2001, Clinton Pope, a 16-year-old young man with a criminal record who had been drinking and smoking marijuana for the night, fired a bullet into his face while playing Russian roulette before his friends in St. Petersburg, Florida, U.S. He was sent to a hospital and was in critical but stable condition.[3]

On March 29, 2003, Evan Below, a 14-year-old boy, shot and killed himself while playing Russian roulette with a .38-caliber revolver in the kitchen of a friend’s house in Casper, Wyoming, U.S. The weapon was taken by the houseowner’s son from his mother’s bedroom.

On August 7, 2004, Samantha Goodson, 16, shot her boyfriend, Michael Gerald Henry, 18, dead while they were playing a version of Russian roulette in a house in Jamaica, Queens, New York, U.S. She was charged with manslaughter and criminal possession of a weapon.

On August 23, 2004, a 25-year-old Greek soldier, Antonis Syros, was shot in the forehead by a revolver that had held a single bullet at the gates of an Olympic village at Mount Parnitha in Athens, Greece. He was playing Russian roulette “jokingly” with Christos Chloros, a policeman, while he was standing guard.

On March 17, 2006, a 15 year-old teen named Astrid Uytterhaegen shot herself dead while being peer pressured into the whole incident & game by her associates. Her body was supposedly found in a ditch, where she had been left to hide any evidence. Traces of alcohol had also been found. (This seems to be a wrong information as you can see from the comments on this article. Astrid Uytterhaegen never died, a friend of him put that on Wikipedia as a joke and never took it off.).

On April 14, 2006, a 16-year-old teen from Peoria, Arizona shot himself to death while playing Russian roulette on his porch with a friend.

On June 8, 2006, 16-year-old Sean Jones from Jacksonville, Florida shot himself to death while playing Russian roulette on the front porch of his friend’s house. He only fired once.

In addition to these specific incidents, it has been alleged that William Shockley, co-inventor of the transistor and winner of the Nobel Prize for Physics attempted suicide by playing a solo game of Russian roulette [4].

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Video: Russian Roulette Goes Wrong (A magicians big finish goes horribly wrong as he attempts the worlds deadliest trick. )

In poker, the dead man’s hand is a two-pair hand, namely “aces and eights.” The origin of the name is the five-card-draw hand held by Wild Bill Hickok at the time of his murder, which is accepted to have included the aces and eights of both of the black suits (sometimes considered “bullets”).

There are various claims as to the identity of Hickok’s fifth card, and there is also some reason to believe that he had discarded one card, the draw was interrupted by the shooting, and he never got the fifth card due to him.

The Stardust in Las Vegas had a 5 of diamonds on display as the 5th card; in the HBO television series Deadwood, a 9 of diamonds is used; the modern town of Deadwood, South Dakota also uses the 9 of diamonds in displays; and Ripley’s Believe it or Not shows a queen of clubs.

The hand in popular culture

This ominous hand is sometimes used as a portent of death in songs, books and in movies that include

Stagecoach (where a doomed character held the ace of diamonds in place of one black ace, and the queen of hearts as fifth card)
The Plainsman (where Gary Cooper as Hickok held the king of spades as the fifth card)
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (in Ken Kesey’s novel McMurphy has a dead man’s hands tattoo)
The collectible card game Doomtown defines a Dead Man’s Hand as having the Jack of Diamonds as the fifth card. In this game, it is considered to outrank any other poker hand, unless an opponent plays the card “That’s Two Pair!” to reduce its rank.
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, and
Dick Tracy
Along Came a Spider
A Party Poker ad shows a man playing poker against an opponent holding a dead man’s hand with a Five of Diamonds as the fifth card. The camera then pans out to show that the setting is a morgue and the player holding the dead man’s hand is a corpse
Dead Man’s Hand is the name of a first-person shooter for the XBox set in the Old West, which features train trips and shoot-outs on horseback.

Dead Man’s Hand Popular Rockabilly band which originated in Jacksonville, FL and later relocated to Los Angeles known for their blues-rich sound and driving rhythm. Their 1999 full length album, Days You Loved Me, won much acclaim amongst critics and roots music enthusiasts alike.

Bob Dylan’s 1962 song “Rambling Gambling Willie” shows the tradition in these lines:

It was late one evenin’ during a poker game.

A man lost all his money; he said Willie was to blame.

He shot poor Willie through the head, which was a tragic fate.

When Willie’s cards fell on the floor, they were aces backed with eights.

And, in the next verse:

So all you rovin’ gamblers, wherever you might be,

The moral of this story is very plain to see.

Make your money while you can, before you have to stop,

For when you pull that dead man’s hand, your gamblin’ days are up.

Bob Seger’s 1980 song “Fire Lake” make reference to the legend in these lines:

Who wants to play those eights and aces

Who wants a raise

Who needs a stake

Who wants to take that long shot gamble

And head out to fire lake

Motörhead mentions the hand in their 1980 song Ace of Spades in the final verse:

Pushing up the ante, I know you’ve got to see me,

Read ‘em and weep, the Dead Man’s Hand again,

I see it in your eyes, take one look and die,

The only thing you see, you know it’s gonna be,

The Ace Of Spades

Uncle Kracker has based an entire song on the hand, entitled Aces and Eights, where in the refrain, he repeats the lines:

Aces and eights, aces and eights, aces and eights

That’s a dead man’s hand

In Nelson DeMille’s novel The Charm School, the school in question is a Soviet prison camp for American military personnel missing in action forced to serve as role models for future spies, who live with them in a complete simulation of American everyday culture. The prisoners have secretly agreed among themselves on false customs they will teach in order to sabotage their students’ future missions, and DeMille reveals this fact to the reader by describing a poker game where a two-pair hand has just been declared, and a prisoner misleads a student by inappropriately describing it as the dead man’s hand.

Adapting to 7-card games

In five-card games, this category of hands can be succinctly defined as two aces, two eights, and one card of any remaining rank, regardless of suit. In seven-card games, a strict specification of aces and eights is more complicated: in permitting the existence of two pairs, a five-card hand as described also rules out any higher value. Among seven-card hands, as a contrasting example, any with two aces, two eights, and three cards with one other rank in common always provides both two pair and a full house, so a competent player would always set aside the eights and declare the full house; most players would probably thus not consider it a dead man’s hand, any more than they would so consider a full house with aces and eights.

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Video: Dead Mans Hand

A Salem, N.H., restaurant its owners have been convicted of illegal gambling. Rockingham County Attorney Jim Reams says Sayde’s Restaurant was found guilty of 10 counts of gambling while possessing a liquor license and fined $45,000.

A postmistress who stole more than £71,000 to feed her gambling addiction is jailed for 18 months.

The game of Basset (in French Bassette, from Italian Bassetta) was considered one of the most polite games with cards, and only fit for persons of the highest rank to play at, on account of the great losses or gains that might accrue on one side or the other.The sums of money lost in France at this game were so considerable that the princes of the blood were in danger of being undone; and after many persons of distinction were ruined the court of France thought fit to forbid Basset. Then faro was invented; and both were soon introduced into England, and after three or four years’ play here, they impoverished so many families, that Parliament enacted a suppression of both games, with severe penalties. The two games are, therefore, of historical interest, and deserve an explanation.

Basset was a sort of lottery. The dealer who kept the bank at Basset, having the sole disposal of the first and last card, and other considerable privileges in dealing the cards, had a much greater prospect of gaining than those who played. This was a truth so acknowledged in France that the king, by public edict, ordered that the privilege of a talliere, or banker at Basset, should only be allowed to the ‘chief cadets,’ or sons of noblemen — supposing that whoever kept the bank must, in a very short time, acquire a considerable fortune.

In this game there was:

1. The Talliere, the banker, who laid down a sum of money to answer every winning card which might turn up.
2. The Croupiere, the assistant of the former, standing by to supervise the losing cards, — so that when there were many at play he might not lose by overlooking anything which might turn up to his profit.
3. The Punter, or every player
4. The Fasse, that is, the first card turned up by the talliere, by which he gained half the value of the money laid upon every card of that sort by the punters or players.
5. The Couch, which was the first stake that every punter laid upon each card — every player having a book of 13 cards before him, upon which he must lay his money, more or less, according to his fancy.
6. The Paroli: in this, whoever won the couch, and intended to go on for another advantage, crooked the corner of his card, letting his money lie, without being paid the value by the talliere.
7. The Masse, which was, when those who had won the couch, would venture more money on the same card.
8. The Pay, which was when the player had won the couch, and, being doubtful of making the paroli, left off; for by going the pay, if the card turned up wrong, he lost nothing, having won the couch before; but if by this adventure fortune favoured him, he won double the money he had staked.
9. The Alpieu was when the couch was won by turning up, or crooking, the corner of the winning card.
10. The Sept-et-le-va was the first great chance that showed the advantages of the game, namely, if the player had won the couch, and then made a paroli by crooking the corner of his card, and going on to a second chance, if his winning card turned up again it became a sept-et-le-va, which was seven times as much as he had laid upon his card.
11. Quinze-et-le-va, was attending the player’s humour, who, perhaps, was resolved to follow his fancy, and still lay his money upon the same card, which was done by crooking the third corner of his card: if this card came up by the dealing of the talliere, it made him win fifteen times as much money as he staked.
12. Trent-et-le-va was marked by the lucky player by crooking the end of the fourth corner of his card, which, coming up, made him win thirty-three times as much money as he staked.
13. Soissante-et-le-va was the highest chance that could happen in the game, for it paid sixty-seven times as much money as was staked. It was seldom won except by some player who resolved to push his good fortune to the utmost.

The players sat round a table, the talliere in the midst of them, with the bank of gold before him, and the punters or players each having a book of 13 cards, laying down one, two, three, or more, as they pleased, with money upon them, as stakes; then the talliere took the pack in his hand and turned them up — the bottom card appearing being called the fasse; he then paid half the value of the stakes laid down by the punters upon any card of that sort.

After the fasse was turned up, and the talliere and croupiere had looked round the cards on the table, and taken advantage of the money laid on them, the former proceeded with his deal; and the next card appearing, whether the king, queen, ace, or whatever it might be, won for the player, the latter might receive it, or making paroli, as before said, go on to sept-et-le-va. The card after that won for the talliere, who took money from each player’s card of that sort, and brought it into his bank — obviously a prodigious advantage in the talliere over the players.

The talliere, if the winning card was a king, and the next after it was a ten, said (showing the cards all round), ‘King wins, ten loses,’ paying the money to such cards as are of the winning sort, and taking the money from those who lost, added it to his bank. This done, he went on with the deal, it might be after this fashion — ‘Ace wins, five loses; ‘Knave wins, seven loses;’ and so on, every other card alternately winning and losing, till all the pack was dealt but the last card.

The last card turned up was, by the rules of the game, for the advantage of the talliere; although a player might have one of the same sort, still it was allowed to him as one of the dues of his office, and he paid nothing on it.

The bold player who was lucky and adventurous, and could push on his couch with a considerable stake to sept-et-le-va, quinze-et-le-va, trente-et-le-va, &c., must in a wonderful manner have multiplied his couch, or first stake; but this was seldom done; and the loss of the players, by the very nature of the game, invariably exceeded that of the bank; in fact, this game was altogether in favour of the bank; and yet it is evident that — in spite of this obvious conviction — the game must have been one of the most tempting and fascinating that was ever invented.

Our English adventurers made this game very different to what it was in France, for there, by royal edict, the public at large were not allowed to play at more than a franc or ten-penny bank, — and the losses or gains could not bring desolation to a family; but in England our punters could do as they liked — staking from one guinea to one hundred guineas and more, upon a card, ‘as was often seen at court,’ says the old author, my informant. When the couch was alpieued, parolied, to sept-et-le-va, quinze-et-le-va, trente-et-le-va, &c., the punter’s gains were prodigious, miraculous; and if fortune befriended him so as to bring his stake to soissante-et-le-va, he was very likely to break the bank, by gaining a sum which no talliere could pay after such tremendous multiplication. But this rarely happened. The general advantage was with the bank — as must be quite evident from the explanation of the game — besides the standing rule that no two cards of the same sort turning up could win for the players; the second always won for the bank. In addition to this there were other ‘privileges’ which operated vastly in favour of the banker.

However, it was ‘of so bewitching a nature,’ says our old writer, ‘by reason of the several multiplications and advantages which it seemingly offered to the unwary punter, that a great many like it so well that they would play at small game rather than give out; and rather than not play at all would punt at six-penny, three-penny, nay, a twopenny bank, — so much did the hope of winning the quinze-et-le-va and the trente-et-le-va intoxicate them.’

Of course there were frauds practised at Basset by the talliere, or banker, in addition to his prescriptive advantages. The cards might be dealt so as not to allow the punter any winning throughout the pack; and it was in the power of the dealer to let the punter have as many winnings as he thought convenient, and no more!

It is said that Basset was invented by a noble Venetian, who was punished with exile for the contrivance. The game was prohibited by Louis XIV, in 1691, and soon after fell into oblivion in France, although flourishing in England. It was also called Barbacole and Hocca.

This guide is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia.