The banker won all the money staked on the card on the right, and
had to pay double the sums staked on those on the left. Certain
advantages were reserved to the banker:--if he drew a doublet,
that is, two equal cards, he won half of the stakes upon the card
which equalled the doublet; if he drew for the players the last
card of the pack, he was exempt from doubling the stakes
deposited on that card.
Suppose a person to put down 20s. upon a card when only eight are
in hand; the last card was a cipher, so there were four places to
lose, and only three to win, the odds against being as 4 to 3.
If 10 cards only were in, then it was 5 to 4 against the player;
in the former case it was the seventh part of the money, whatever
it was, L1 or L100; in the latter case, a ninth. The odds from
the beginning of the deal insensibly stole upon the player at
every pull, till from the first supposed 4 per cent. it became
about 15 per cent.
At the middle of the 18th century the expenses of a Faro bank, in
all its items of servants, rent, puffs, and other incidental
charges of candles, wine, arrack-punch, suppers, and safeguard
money, &c., in Covent Garden, amounted to L1000 per annum.
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