Shrewd
players, however, prefer some other main, with the view of having
a more favourable chance to depend upon of winning both stake and
odds. For example, let us reverse what was mentioned above, and
suppose the caster to call 5 and throw 7; he then will have 7 as
his chance to win with odds of 3 to 2 IN HIS FAVOUR.
'Such is the game of English Hazard, at which large fortunes have
been won and lost. It is exceedingly simple, and at times can
become painfully interesting. Cheating is impossible, unless
with loaded dice, which have been used and detected by their
splitting in two, but never, perhaps, unless at some disreputable
silver hell. The mode of remunerating the owner of the rooms was
a popular one. The loser never paid, and the winner only when he
succeeded in throwing three mains in succession; and even then
the "box fee," as it was called, was limited to 5s.--a mere
trifle from what he must have gained. In French Hazard a bank is
constituted at a board of green cloth, and the proceedings are
carried on in a more subdued and regular mode than is the case in
the rough-and-ready English game. Every stake that is "set" is
covered by the bank, so that the player runs no risk of losing a
large amount, when, if successful, he may win but a trifling one;
but en revanche, the scale of odds is so altered as to put the
double zero of roulette and the "aprez" of Rouge et Noir to the
blush, and to operate most predjudicially to the player.
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