EIGHT-DIE CASE.
This is a favorite game with traveling sporting men, who introduce it at county fairs, and on circus grounds, and at other places where there is a large crowd. The diagram represents the arrangement of the interior of a glass covered case containing prizes. The divisions in the case are numbered from eight to forty-eight, inclusive, to correspond with the numbers which may be possibly thrown in casting eight dice, which the proprietor carries with him, together with a dice box. For a stipulated consideration, he permits any one who may wish, to throw the dice upon the glass cover of the case. The sum of the spots on the upper faces is taken, and the player is given whatever prize the number may call for.
When the game is introduced upon fair-grounds, the directors of which insist that there shall be no blanks, small articles of cheap jewelry are put inside the case as prizes, although gamblers prefer to use money prizes only, for the reason that it gives the outfit a more attractive appearance.
An examination of the diagram will show that the higher prizes are invariably placed in squares corresponding to a number which it is almost impossible for a player to throw. Thus, a $500 prize is placed in the square numbered eight. To win this, it would be necessary to cast eight aces. Another prize of like amount is numbered forty-eight, and cannot be won unless the player throws eight sixes. Those numbers which may be easily thrown are always attached to squares containing small prizes, or which are inscribed with the abbreviation “rep.” These letters, as in all similar games, stand for “represent,” and when a player has thrown a number corresponding to a square so marked, he is required to double the amount already put up or submit to the loss of his stake.
This game affords a rare opportunity for cheating, although the fraud is not perpetrated by means of loaded dice, as many persons suppose. The proprietor counts the spots on the dice thrown to suit himself, and after hastily calling out the number replaces the cubes in the box. Strange as it may appear, it is not one man out of fifty who ever insists upon counting the spots on his own throw. If the owner of the device has reason to believe that the player has money and is a “soft mark,” he calls out the number corresponding to one of the “represent” squares. He then tells the victim that he has neither won nor lost and must double the amount previously advanced and “try his luck” again. This practice is continued until the dupe has been induced to stake all of his money, when the proprietor calls out a number corresponding to the square marked “blank,” of which there is always one in every case. Of course, the operator then informs the “sucker” that he has lost all the money which he had paid.
It sometimes happens that a player grows suspicious, and asks how long this doubling his stake is to continue. In such a case, the operator mentally calculates the amount of money which the man probably has, and tells him that he will be required to double only two or three times more, when, if he again throws a “represent” number, the proprietor will return all of his money except five per cent., which is the percentage belonging to the game. The victim does not throw a “represent” number the last time under such circumstances, but is thrown upon the “blank” square, which means that the proprietor has won the entire stake. “Cappers” are as useful in this game as in any other. Their methods of operation are similar to those elsewhere described and need not be more particularly dwelt upon here.
Eight-Die Case.
| Jewelry. | Jewelry. | Jewelry. | $3.00 | Jewelry. | Jewelry. | Rep. |
| 19 | 38 | 24 | 9 | 37 | 21 | 15 |
| 25 cts. | Jewelry. | $1.00 | Jewelry. | Rep. | Rep. | $5.00 |
| 13 | 30 | 43 | 33 | 18 | 29 | 46 |
| Rep. | Jewelry. | $5.00 | $20.00 | Rep. | 50 cts. | Jewelry. |
| 23 | 39 | 8 | 1215 | 36 | 12 | 34 |
| Rep. | Blank. | Jewelry. | Jewelry. | Jewelry. | Jewelry. | Jewelry. |
| 32 | 17 | 35 | 28 | 16 | 41 | 22 |
| $2.00 | $5.00 | Rep. | Jewelry. | Jewelry. | $50.00 | $10.00 |
| 11 | 48 | 20 | 42 | 31 | 10 | 37 |
| $2.00 | Jewelry. | Jewelry. | Jewelry. | Jewelry. | Blank. | |
| 44 | 27 | 14 | 25 | 04 | 20 |
POKER DICE.
This game is usually played in saloons for drinks or cigars, though sometimes for money, and occasionally even for higher stakes. Five ordinary dice and a dice cup is used. Each player has three throws. The highest score which can possibly be made is five aces, the next, five sixes, then five fives, and so on. Next to five similar spots, the best throw is four of one kind and an odd number, the relative value of such throws being measured by the number of spots upon the top of the four dice, aces ranging highest. The game is called “poker” dice, because of the general resemblance between it and “bluff,” so far as the value of the throws is concerned as compared with that of the hands held at poker.