221 
FARO. 
red, tape, cr a wooden rim about an incli high, and 
about eight inches w ithin the circumference of the table, 
to divide the cards punted on from the livrets. At the 
fides of this table, and oppolite each other, tire dealer 
and croup feat themfelves, that they may the better com¬ 
mand a view of the punters who furround it. Several 
hundred guineas, part loofe in the well, and part in rou¬ 
leaus of fifty guineas each, lie between them. The office 
of the tailleur is to deal and fettle the game of the punters 
on each fide of him. The croup Ihuffles another pack in 
the mean time, watches that no miftakes are made, or 
advantages taken, by the punters, that no parolis ftand 
which are loft and fliould retire, that no cocks are irn- 
pofed on them ; pays and receives flakes, &c. Each ponte 
is fnrnifhed with a livret or book, containing a fuit of thir¬ 
teen cards, and four cards denoting the fame, as noticed 
above, viz. the little figure, the yellow, the black, and 
the great figure. The ufe of thefe card's is, that the 
player, if difpofed to punt on ace, deux, trois ; or 4, 5, 6 ; 
or 7, 8, 9, 10; cr knave, queen, king ; he may avoid the 
trouble of feledting the particular cards, by thing the re- 
prefentative figures, and the dealer and croup form a 
more prompt and comprehenfive idea of the play, than 
if the punters had ranges of many cards before them.— 
When the pontes have feledted a card or cards, each from 
liis livret, or drawn one out without choice, or defired a 
neighbouring punter to draw one for him, or he has found 
the card which he had a prefentiment fliould win, he lays 
it before him, juft within the line, taking care to keep his 
other cards without-, on this card, cr that he may with the 
more facility change it as often as whim or caprice may 
direct, on a head-card placed face-dGwnwards, he lays his 
couche, or the fum he ftakes. The tailleur, or dealer, 
having flui tiled, during this time, a common pack of cards, 
which are cut by the neareft punter : holds the pack in 
his hand, and turns it up to fhew the bottom card, as a 
caution to the players not to punt on it too near the clofe 
of the deal, as although it will be dealt on the left hand, 
yet being the iaft card, and known to every one, never 
wins. That the punters may not forget the bottom card, 
the croup felecfs from a livret with the corners cut off to 
diftinguiih it, laying in the middle of the table the fimilar 
card, and places it on the top. The dealer then deals 
the pack deliberately in coups, that is, one on his right 
hand and another on his left, declaring audibly what they 
are; thus, at fotne banks in the old manner, knave lofes, 
ace wins; feven lofes, ten wins; but generally the dealer 
only declares the card, as knave, ace; feven, ten; queen, 
queen, or queens, &c. The croup between eacli coup 
looks round, and of all that had punted on the lofing card 
he receives their ftakes: of ail thole who had punted on 
the winning cards, he inquires if they will receive what 
they have won, or will make a paroii. If a punter wins a 
paro/i, he may make another for a fept et. k va ; if.the next 
event is in his favour, he may paroii again for a quinze et, 
le va-, after that for a trente et le va, which, if he wins, he 
may receive thirty-one times his (take, or make another 
f aroli for a foixante et le va, or fixty-three times his ftake, 
but this only defperudos or madmen attempt. The mak¬ 
ing parolis js tantamount to receiving what a ponte has 
won, and adding it to his ftake. To avoid the trouble 
and fave the time it would take to pay every punter every 
favourable event, and to promote play, the mode of bend¬ 
ing the corner of the cards was invented. If an event is 
againft a punter, all the parolis he may have made retire 
of courfe, and he lofes his ftake. He might have played a 
lefs ardent game by making a paix or pont, as it is called, 
which is equal to receiving and continuing his firft ftake, 
by bending his card in the middle, and making it ftand 
like a chevron, thus f\ : he may attempt to win a large 
fum on what he lias won of the banker without hazard¬ 
ing his own money again, by making a double-paix, 
tints, (f\, treble-paix, &c. or after having won the 
paroii, he might, in order to fave his ftake, have made 
Vol. VII. No. 421. 
a paix-paroli. If a punter had fet a ftake on a knave and 
an ace, or any two cards that happen to be dealt in one 
coup, he would win by one and lofe by the other, which 
is faid to be me pour l’autre, or one for the other. The 
tailleur proceeds in his deal by coups of two cards each, 
through the pack, fettling the ftakes and regulating the 
chances of each punter after each coup. When doublets 
are dealt in the fame coup, as queen queen, or any others, 
the gantefters lofe half their ftakes, who punted on fimilar 
cards; this they pay or make a pli, to have it determined, 
by the next event whether the banker or punter has all. 
This, with hocly, which is the laft card but one, the laft 
card being a cipher, are the only acknowledged profits of 
a faro-banker. 
A punter may change his cards as often as he will be¬ 
tween the coups in the courfe of the deal : he may mafqtie 
his card for one or more coups, by placing another card 
with its face downwards on it, or by turning his card, 
and then difplay it again ; he may decline punting in the 
middle of a deal after any coup, unlefs he has an event 
undetermined when the dealer has only eight cards in his 
hand; in this cafe he claims the chance of hocly, the 
odds are then four to three in his favour, as he has four 
chances of winning of the ponte, and only three of lofing. 
The firft card dealt, is not valid ii '1 the fecond appears. 
The two cards conftitute a coup, and have fuch depend¬ 
ence on each other, that if the fecond card is never dealt 
for the ponte, the firft which was dealt on the right hand 
for the banker, is ufelefs, and cannot win. When the 
laft coup is deficient, it mult have arifen from the dealer 
having mifdealt, and as it is often impoftible to determine 
whether it was accidental or wilful, deception is imputed, 
and the punters having had a part of their game inverted, 
lofing where they would have won ; and as it would be 
almoft impoftible to take an, accurate retrofpeft of the 
game, and adjuft the differences, the banker forfeits all 
the money the punters may have on their cards at the 
moment of difeovery. 
Faro is fo bewitching a game, by reafon of the feveral 
fpecious multiplications and advantages which it feem- 
ingly offers to the avarice of an unwary punter, that it 
intoxicates many to that degree, that they feldom come 
to their fenfes, or difeover that the.y have not been play¬ 
ing on the fquare, until they have no more money or credit 
to punt with. De Moivre, in his Dodlrine of Chances, 
p. 77, has (hewn how to find the gain of the banker in 
any circumftance of cards remaining in the ftock, and of 
the number of times that the ponte’s cards is contained 
in it. Of this problem he enumerates four cafes, viz. 
when the ponte’s card is once, twice, three, or four, 
times in the ftock. In the firft cale, the gain of the 
banker is n being the number of cards in the ftock. 
n 
I11 the fecond cafe, bis gain is 
in -}- 1 
n—2 x y _2 
»X« — 1 nxn- 
— 1 
37 
fuppofing y— i. In the third cafe, his 
gain is -—-, or ----, fuppofing y ~h. In 
2 X n — 1 7 i X n — 1 
the fourth cafe, the gain of the banker, or the lofs of 
the ponte, is-^- y, or--—-—- 
n — 1 X «— 3 2X»-iX»-3’ 
fuppofing y — i. De Moivre has calculated a table, 
exhibiting this gain or lofs for any particular circum¬ 
ftance of the game * and he obferves, that at this play 
the leaf!: difadvantage of the ponte, under the fame eir- 
cumftances of cards remaining in the ftock, is when the 
card of the ponte is but twice in it, the next greater 
when three times, the next when once, and the greateft 
when four times. He has alfo demonftrated, that the 
whole gain per cent, of the banker, upon all the money 
that is played for, is 2I. 19s. iod.—In the above calcu¬ 
lation, however, the advantage of hocly fs not included ; 
3 L for 
