fair, and, lastly, that it was a very quiet game. It was,

however, the most dangerous game for the destruction of families
ever invented. The Faro bankers seem to have employed some

'gentlemen' to give a very favourable report of the game to the
town, and so every one took it upon trust without further

inquiry. Faro was the daughter of Basset--both alike notorious
frauds, there being no one, except professed gamblers, who could

be said to understand the secrets of these games.
Faro was played with an entire pack of cards, and admitted of an

indeterminate number of players, termed 'punters,' and a
'banker.' Each player laid his stake on one of the 52 cards.

The banker held a similar pack, from which he drew cards, one for
himself, placed on the right, and the other, called the carte

anglaise, or English card, for the players, placed on the left.
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.
Throughout this century Faro was the favourite game. 'Our life

here,' writes Gilly Williams to George Selwyn in 1752, 'would not
displease you, for we eat and drink well, and the Earl of

Coventry holds a Pharaoh-bank every night to us, which we have
plundered considerably.' Charles James Fox preferred Faro to any

other game.
HAZARD.

This game was properly so called; for it made a man or undid him
in the twinkling of an eye.

It is played with only two dice; 20 persons may be engaged, or as
many as will. The chief things in the game are the Main and the

Chance. The chance is the caster's and the main is the setter's.
There can be no main thrown above 9, nor under 5; so that 5, 6,

7, 8, and 9 are all the mains which are flung at Hazard. Chances
and nicks are from 4 to 10. Thus 4 is a chance to 9, 5 to 8, 6

to 7, 7 to 6, 8 to 5, and 9 and 10 a chance to 5, 6, 7, and 8; in
short, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 are chances to any main, if any

of these 'nick' it not.
Nicks are either when the chance is the same with the main, as 5

and 5, 6 and 6, 7 and 7, and so on; or 6 and 12, 7 and 11, 8 and
12, where observe, that 12 is out to 9, 7, and 5, and 11 is out

to 9, 8, 6, and 5.
The better to illustrate the game we shall give an example. Let

7 be the main named. The caster throws 5, and that is his
chance; and so he has 5 to 7. If the caster throws his own

chance he wins all the money set to him by the setter; but if he
throws 7, which is the main, he must pay as much money as is on

the table.
If, again, 7 be the main, and the caster throws 11, that is a

nick, and sweeps away all the money on the table; but if he
throws a chance he must wait which will come first.

The worst chances in the game are 4 to 10, and 7 is considered
the best and easiest main to be thrown. It might be thought that

6 and 8 should admit of no difference in advantage to 7, but it
is just the reverse, although 6, 7, and 8 have eight equal

chances.
For 6, or sice, we have quatre-duce, cinque-ace, and two treys;

for 8, we have sice-duce, cinque-trey, and two quatres; but the
disadvantage is in the doublets required-- two treys, two

quatres; therefore sice-duce is easier thrown than two quatres,
and so, consequently, cinque-ace or quatre-duce sooner than two

treys.
'I saw an old rook (gambler),' says the writer before quoted,

'take up a young fellow in a tavern upon this very bet. The
bargain was made that the rook should have seven always, and the

young gentleman six, and throw continually. To play they went;
the rook won the first day L10, and the next day the like sum;

and so for six days together, in all L60. Notwithstanding the
gentleman, I am confident, had fair dice, and threw them always

himself. And further to confirm what I alleged before, not only
this gamester, but many more have told me that they desired no

greater advantage than this bet of 7 to 6. But it is the opinion
of most that at the first throw the caster hath the worst of it.

'Hazard is certainly the most bewitching game that is played with
dice; for when a man begins to play, he knows not when to leave

off; and having once accustomed himself to it, he hardly ever
after minds anything else.'[66]

[66] The Compleat Gamester, by Richard Seymour, Esq. 1739.
As this game is of a somewhat complicatedcharacter, another

account of it, which appeared in the Pall Mall Gazette for Sept.
3, 1869, may not be unacceptable.

'The players assemble round a circular table, a space being
reserved for the "groom-porter," who occupies a somewhat elevated

position, and whose duty it is to call the odds and see that the
game is played correctly. Whoever takes the box and dice places

in the centre of the table as much money as he wishes to risk,
which is at once covered with an equal amount either by some

individual speculator, or by the contributions of several. The
player (technically called the "caster") then proceeds to call a

"main." There are five mains on the dice, namely, 5, 6, 7, 8,
and 9; of these he mentally selects that one which either chance

or superstition may suggest, calls it aloud, shakes the box, and
delivers the dice. If he throws the exact number he called, he

"nicks" it and wins; if he throws any other number (with a few
exceptions, which will be mentioned), he neither wins nor loses.

The number, however, which he thus throws becomes his "chance,"
and if he can succeed in repeating it before he throws what was

his main, he wins; if not, he loses. In other words, having
completely failed to throw his main in the first instance, he

should lose, but does not in consequence of the equitable
interference of his newly-made acquaintance, which constitutes

itself his chance. For example, suppose the caster "sets"--that
is, places on the table--a stake of L10, and it is covered by an

equal amount, and he then calls 7 as his main and throws 5; the
groom-porter at once calls aloud, "5 to 7"-- that means, 5 is the

number to win and 7 the number to lose, and the player continues
throwing until the event is determined by the turning up of

either the main or the chance. During this time, however, a most
important feature in the game comes into operation--the laying