Happy Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving is normally a day off for cheaters. Like the rest of the nation, the holiday usually found me sitting back and pigging out on turkey and all of the trimmings. Happily, today was no exception.
This afternoon I was reminiscing, about one particular Thanksgiving in the late 1970s when I learned the rich history of casino cheating team into which I had recently been beckoned. I spent this notable Thanksgiving with my mentor Joe Classon and his mother, a rather stylish woman in her seventies, who actually referred to her son as “my son the casino pastposter.”
Over a lavish traditional meal Joe and his Mother regaled me with tales of how Joe and his brother Henry, came to be professional casino cheaters. It was then that I heard of the pioneers who taught Joe’s brother Henry.
Mumbles and Wheels, two World War I vets, developed an early batch of casino tricks that they plied in the casinos in Puerto Rico and Cuba before venturing off to future gambling Mecca of Las Vegas. Being pioneers at their craft probably required a unique level of courage, but those were also the days before the casinos offered much of a meaningful defense against skilled cheats. I learned about how Mumbles and Wheels had a hand in changing casinos ideas about defensive tactics. In direct response to these early cheating pioneers, casinos began to use those little plastic roulette markers the size of a salt shaker placing them on top of the chips on the winning number.
When Wheels passed on, Henry joined Mumbles and learned more than a few valuable craps and roulette moves, which Henry then taught Joe. Less than a year after Mumbles had died, in the mid fifties, the two brothers found themselves in Las Vegas standing frozen in disbelief upon encountering their first roulette marker. The casino industry's first coordinated counterattack aimed at roulette pastposters, those plastic cylinders were invented by an ex-cheater working in surveillance for the Sands. Its purpose was to deny pastposters access to the winning chips underneath, as well as prevent the laying down of naked cappers.
All the casinos in Las Vegas were suddenly using the salt shaker-like anti-pastposting device. Within a few months, every American or English style roulette table in the world was using it. Henry and Joe considered foregoing roulette in favor of craps moves but Henry quickly came up with a different idea of working the splits. For some time they then pastposted where the marker doesn't touch the split bets between two numbers. The bets still paid 17 to 1. Then, as is the case now, adaptability is the key to a successful cheating operation.
As I celebrate Thanksgiving, and recall all of the many holidays I shared with my family of casino cheating partners, I am definitely thankful for having met Joe, through whom I became a part of such a rich heritage of skilled professional casino artisans.
This afternoon I was reminiscing, about one particular Thanksgiving in the late 1970s when I learned the rich history of casino cheating team into which I had recently been beckoned. I spent this notable Thanksgiving with my mentor Joe Classon and his mother, a rather stylish woman in her seventies, who actually referred to her son as “my son the casino pastposter.”
Over a lavish traditional meal Joe and his Mother regaled me with tales of how Joe and his brother Henry, came to be professional casino cheaters. It was then that I heard of the pioneers who taught Joe’s brother Henry.
Mumbles and Wheels, two World War I vets, developed an early batch of casino tricks that they plied in the casinos in Puerto Rico and Cuba before venturing off to future gambling Mecca of Las Vegas. Being pioneers at their craft probably required a unique level of courage, but those were also the days before the casinos offered much of a meaningful defense against skilled cheats. I learned about how Mumbles and Wheels had a hand in changing casinos ideas about defensive tactics. In direct response to these early cheating pioneers, casinos began to use those little plastic roulette markers the size of a salt shaker placing them on top of the chips on the winning number.
When Wheels passed on, Henry joined Mumbles and learned more than a few valuable craps and roulette moves, which Henry then taught Joe. Less than a year after Mumbles had died, in the mid fifties, the two brothers found themselves in Las Vegas standing frozen in disbelief upon encountering their first roulette marker. The casino industry's first coordinated counterattack aimed at roulette pastposters, those plastic cylinders were invented by an ex-cheater working in surveillance for the Sands. Its purpose was to deny pastposters access to the winning chips underneath, as well as prevent the laying down of naked cappers.
All the casinos in Las Vegas were suddenly using the salt shaker-like anti-pastposting device. Within a few months, every American or English style roulette table in the world was using it. Henry and Joe considered foregoing roulette in favor of craps moves but Henry quickly came up with a different idea of working the splits. For some time they then pastposted where the marker doesn't touch the split bets between two numbers. The bets still paid 17 to 1. Then, as is the case now, adaptability is the key to a successful cheating operation.
As I celebrate Thanksgiving, and recall all of the many holidays I shared with my family of casino cheating partners, I am definitely thankful for having met Joe, through whom I became a part of such a rich heritage of skilled professional casino artisans.
posted by Richard at 6:07 PM Permalink To Article
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1 Comments:
Well,i know you have a real nice story,but i would be greatly satisfied if you add a little more literary devices to enrich your writing the more.Keep it up.
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