Shell game
The shell game (also known as the nutshell game ) is a form of trick cheating that looks like a simple game of skill . The cone player moves three cones (nutshells or the like) one below the other at a speed that apparently gives a teammate the opportunity to observe the process.
The game is known and notorious as an extremely profitable, illegal fraud game that is operated worldwide and is played in large cities and tourist centers in heavily frequented public places, for example in pedestrian zones, train station areas or at flea markets.
history
The shell game was probably from one already in the ancient times known, first of Seneca described (1-65) sleight inspired, in which several balls or nuts under cups back and migrate back. This classic piece of art, known as the cup game, served as entertainment then as it is today and is also part of the magician's repertoire in the 21st century. It is always performed with several balls and has nothing in common with the shell game in terms of the trick principle and the sequence.
In the German-speaking world, the actual shell game was first mentioned as a cheating game at the end of the 16th century: Johann Fischart mentions the "Hütlinplayer" in connection with other cheaters in his monkey-heurlich Naupengeheurliche historical jumble. 200 years later, Johann Georg Krünitz notes in his Öconomischen Encyclopädie : “In older police ordinances, the hatchers, along with the slingers and others, are forbidden to cheat the country”.
In the English-speaking world, the shell game was first observed and described in London at the end of the 19th century.
Course of the game
The cone player places three similar "hats", often halved walnut shells, drawers for matchboxes, crown caps, paper cups, etc. directly on the asphalt or on a mobile surface that can be dismantled in seconds when the police arrive, for example a cardboard box. Since these objects are worthless and hardly suitable for tracing back to their owner, the cone player can leave them behind without hesitation in an emergency if they escape. With one of these cones he covers a small object, such as a tinfoil ball or a pea, and then swaps the places of the cones with one another several times and at a certain speed. A viewer is then encouraged to bet a previously determined amount so that after the last shift he still knows under which of the cones the object is located. If the other player guessed correctly, he gets his stake back doubled by the game maker, otherwise he loses it.
The card game Kümmelblättchen , which is also fraudulent, is related and similar in the play area .
Fraud strategy
Skillful staging suggests to the victim that one could emerge from the game as a winner: Apparently, this is a pure game of skill, the chance of which depends on the attention of the viewer. Even if a teammate cannot follow the movements, he can guess the position of the ball correctly, as in a game of chance, with the odds 1: 2 distributed, since the teammate has to choose between three cones, only one of which can be the right one. However, due to simultaneous manipulation , the victim actually has no chance at all.
Even with a recognizable suspicious viewer, the group can flee if the hat is correctly typed - with the money invested.
Staging
The psychology of shell game consists in making the other player believe that he can follow the movement of the ball with his eyes and his mind. This supposed prospect of profit - in addition to the manipulation as such - is suggested to potential victims by a staging: During the “demo rounds” the cones are moved rather slowly and you can see exactly where the ball is. Accomplices of the game maker form a crowd around this so that passers-by, following the herd instinct, stop and become curious. The larger a group, the more attention it gets from passers-by and it makes it easier for the victim to initially follow the action at a distance in the anonymity of the crowd. Corresponding gangs include up to 20 people.
Individual accomplices play as decoy apparently against the game maker, "tap" the correct position of the object and then collect the winnings on the pretense. Or the decoy deliberately “taps” the wrong way, although the correct position of the object was clearly visible, so that the audience can lull themselves into the superior feeling of a know-it-all . In both cases, the uninvolved viewer is led to believe that there is a real profit opportunity. After all, the cone players regularly arrange small winning streaks for their victims by deliberately letting them win in order to entice them to bet higher. Furthermore, the group encourages bets by psychologically rewarding the other player with appropriate reactions for his or her supposed performance in the event of his initial winnings, and by building up a corresponding game atmosphere.
The viewer does not even have to actively participate in the game, but is sometimes asked by the decoy in passing for harmless help, for example to protect the correct cone from the cone player's fingers while he reaches into his wallet. In this way, the viewer is involved in the game, even if there was no intention to play. With simple psychological tricks with a simultaneous secure prospect of profit, the decoy then quickly gets the viewer to "show" and lose money himself.
manipulation
In the actual game, neither the skill of the other player nor a gambling situation play a role, since the cone player can use simple sleight of hand to control the ball and correct its position without any problems and suspicious movements in every phase of the game. One possibility is to move the cone forwards, which means that the ball leaves the cone almost automatically and can be placed under one of the other cones. Even if the correct cone should be chosen, it can be shown as empty using the same method. The high technical efficiency of the cone game consists in the fact that no visible movements of the fingers are required for the trick action, which are not hidden by moving the cones. Since the fingers practically do not move at all in relation to the hand and no muscle tension is visible, neither a suspicious movement nor a tell-tale deviation in the course of time can be registered. Another possibility for correction is to swap things over while the other player distracts himself by fiddling with his wallet. The teammate has no control over what is happening at any time and is therefore usually without a chance.
Another manipulation is that during a round in which a victim wagers money, the ball is in the player's hand for the entire game and is pushed under another the moment the victim points to one of the cones becomes.
Another method is that the almost pea-sized and apparently firm, but actually made of foam, ball is pressed under the edge when the walnut shell halves are moved and either clamped there or pressed into a neighboring shell.
Organization of the game
The shell players are often organized in mafia-like gangs , which ensure that no foreign "providers" can operate in the respective claimed area and to whom a large part of the profit has to be transferred. In addition to the actual shell player and people who appear to be playing along or who are otherwise motivating to play along, people are often involved who are responsible for warning of any approaching police or law enforcement officers or for the safekeeping of the money (since a separate person can disappear more inconspicuously in the event of a check than the player) are responsible. Shell gangs are seen as violent groups of perpetrators who react accordingly to protests and attempts by third parties to provide information. Some participants also prevent players - possibly by force - from claiming the winnings they are entitled to.
Jurisprudence
In Germany, the shell game can be considered a fraud . For a long time, the police had to be able to prove the act of trickery in individual cases and therefore had only limited opportunities to intervene. For reasons of practicality, therefore, often only a dismissal is given. In the meantime (2006), in the case law in Berlin , the pretense of a chance to win a game of hats is already rated as a fraud, which can be prosecuted accordingly.
Since 1 October 2005 in Austria , the shell game in the Austrian capital Vienna unlawful as "forbidden event." In London, however, it is classified as an administrative offense .
Web links
- Berlin police: be careful! Cheating with a shell game! , Information and video demonstration of trickery
Remarks
- ↑ described by Johann Beckmann : Contributions to the history of inventions . Volume 4. Verlag Paul Gotthelf Kummer, Leipzig 1799, p. 75 f. ( Digitized online from Google Books ; accessed April 27, 2019.)
- ↑ already in the first edition, with a slightly different title. Johann Fischart: Affenteurliche und Ungeheurliche Geschichtschrift [...] , [Strasbourg] 1575 [p. 17]. ( Online digital copy of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek ; accessed April 27, 2019.)
- ↑ quoted from the German legal dictionary (DRW), entry Hütchenspieler bei Krünitz, 1783 ; accessed April 27, 2019.
- ↑ Whaley, Bart. Encyclopedic Dictionary of Magic Jeff Busby Magic, Inc., 1989
- ↑ Avoid shell players, because there are no chances of winning . Website of the city of Berlin. Retrieved August 17, 2014.
- ↑ Center for Gambling Research at the University of Vienna: Shell players have to take their hats
