Scarne and The Wire
John Scarne had an encyclopedic knowledge of gaming and cheating as well as an incredible brain for figuring out odds and percentages.
His books on dice, cards, three card monte and gaming are in the libraries of all good card cheats and gambling aficionados.
Throughout his career he was often hired by casinos and betting agents to spot cheats and break down scams.
On one occasion he was hired by a bookie who had set up a closed shop book making operation in a penthouse apartment.
His regular customers would spend an afternoon locked in his horse room, plied with drinks and encouraged to bet on horse races with the results of each race would coming in through a single phone line.
The bookie was concerned because a young blonde woman had won over $100,000 in six weeks and he believed she was cheating.
He asked Scarne to figure out how this woman was able to pick the winnings in a locked room. Particularly since this was the 1950s with none of the fancy modern communications technology we could have used today.
Scarne spent the afternoon with the bookie and soon cracked the scam. See if you can figure it out too. Here are the factors:
1) The only way to communicate with people in the room was via a single phone line.
2) Only the bookie would used the phone for taking phone bets and getting results.
3) The announcement of race winners came around five minutes after the race had run. 3) People bet right up until the announcement was made.
4) No one left or entered the windowless room.
If you can figure out the answer, post it below. If you’ve heard the story before, keep mum until others have had a guess.
My suggestions:
-the blonde had a thumper on her leg that someone on the outside used to communication.
-you mentioned they were plied with drinks. Maybe the waiter was in on it? The only other person who could leave the room?
-the blonde fixed the race.
-Scarne was in on it.
Er… lip-reading?
Simon
- The only technology in the room was the phone
- No one left or entered the room
- The race was unfixed
- The scam occured several times over 6 months.
Tom
- But whose lips would she read? The bets were all placed before the bookie got the results.
The blonde was a ridgy didge mind reader unlike the phony ones you see around these days!!
Lets get serious.Her accomplice who rang through to make a phone bet,would ring at particular times within the 5 minute period which would indicate what numbered horse had won the previous race.
Michael - Assuming a ten horse race, that would give an accomplice only a 30 second window to get the timing right. Plus - if it was horse number ten, the blonde would only have seconds to place the bet.
But I like your thinking.
Indeed,
Down to the wire alright.For the 10th horse , she would know straight after it wasn’t the ninth so that would give her a little more time. I was thinking in 15 second windows,both wearing swiss chronographic time pieces,set to the precise time
This is based around the Phone(title)
The blonde was trained in pencil reading.The bookie would have to write down the results.Different forms for results and bets.
Clutching at straws now.
The accomplice rings up at a certain time within the 5 minutes after the race has finished and places a bet on for the next race. This is in fact the winner for the last race. The beautiful blonde or another accomplicewho is not under the radar, either watches what is written down, pencil reads or actually hears the bookie confirm the bet.She then places her winning bet.
This would work.
One more thing, the waiter would be the perfect accomplice here.After he gets the winning number from the bookie as discussed in the last post, under the pretense of supplying drinks ,he then transports this to the beautiful blonde written on a serviette or drink note book.
Person at track got the winner. Called the line. Let phone ring number of times of the winning horse. He had 5 minutes in order to do this. She then called in her wager.
If she ws able to see what bets the bookie was taking… they were coded so that the bet a ceretain bettor was making gave the winning horse in the last race.
Micheal and J Mack have hit the nail on the head.
An accomplice would phone in and make the following bet-
“I’d like to bet $10, $20 and $50 on Magical Mystery in the fifth race. Can you repeat that back to me?”
When the bookie repeated back the bet, the blonde would add up the three amounts and know the number of the winning horse. In this example, it would be horse number 8 ($10 + $20 + $50 = $80)
After ringing around, the bookie discovered that the blonde was working in a team of 6 blonde women all aged 25-35. Several other bookies has been taken in the same scam.
History doesn’t tell us what happened to the swindletresses.
I think I’ve met a couple of these blondes in my lifetime.
Thanks for putting this up Nick.Looking forward to the next one.