Three Card Monte in the Sixties
I met up with an old broad tosser yesterday.
He worked throughout London in the sixties. He came for Italy for the world cup and ended up staying for a few years hitting the race tracks and football games. On derby day, his seven man mob would pull in 5000 pounds between them, making 700 pounds a man.
At the time, you had to ‘buy the police a drink’ to run the game. If the police were honest and you were arrested, the fine was 50 pound because it was easier to convict for ‘obstructing a footpath’ rather than gambling/scamming in public.
He had excellent technique but, surprisingly, was not a fan of the popular US playing cards. He prefers crown and queen slipper. He also preferred the two bend (one concave, one convex) because it keeps the cards flatter.
Magicians and monte fans will be interested to know that his lugs were very small with more of a crease then a bend. He’d bend each corner up creating a small, visible crease. In the context of a game, they looked a little dog eared.