A Swindle, of Sorts... pt. 8

The second member of the team is called the Scooter, thus named because this member “scoots” the dice, rather than make them roll legitimately. A legitimate toss of the dice causes the dice to tumble and bounce of the back rail of the dice table. A die tumbles when it flips top over bottom. This action is what most people call “rolling.” The difference is that dice don’t roll because they are not round. Balls and cylinders are round; they roll. Dice and bricks are square; they tumble. Scooting the dice is the same as sliding them. They don’t tumble, they scoot.

The Scooter is an expert at sliding the dice. He stands to the stickman’s immediate left. When it’s his turn to shoot the dice, he can scoot them to the other end of the table and the dice will never tumble. Scooting both dice sounds impressive, and it sounds like the stuff movies are made of, but that only happens in the movies. Our Scooter only scoots one die. We’ll get back to that in a bit.

Dealers love it when the players make bets for them. They get to keep the money they win. Some nights this could amount to $20 a man, on other nights it could be $2,000 a man. Players make bets for the dealers for a variety of reasons. Some do it because it’s lucky. Other’s do it because they know the boss doesn’t pay the dealers much more than minimum wage. The dealers often ask the players to make bets for them, because they have mouths to feed, college tuitions to pay for, and an innate desire to be a part of the action.

Big tippers are called Georges. And the Scooter is very much a George. He likes to make bets for the dealers because he is such a nice guy. But he doesn’t make bets for all the dealers. He only makes bets for the stickman. He doesn’t make bets for the stickman because it brings him luck, nor because the stickman asked him for a bet. He doesn’t even know the stickman. In fact, he doesn’t care at all for the stickman. The Stickman’s job is to watch the dice. The Stickman must never take his eyes off the dice, not even for a split-second. All these bets the Scooter makes for the stickman are “last-second hunch” bets, and he makes them at the last second so as to distract the stickman the split-second he scoots the dice.

The scooter picks up the dice with one hand, makes ready to shoot them, and tosses the stickman a buck to bet for himself with his other hand. When the stickman looks at the money the Scooter tossed him, the Scooter lets loose with the dice, scooting one of them along the way. The Stickman sees the dice go flying and immediately resumes his duties of watching the dice. Just as the dice go flying past the Stickman, the Fat Man hastily leans over the table and presses his bets, using his belly to further block the Stickman’s view of the scooting die. These combined, last-second actions blind the Stickman and the second Base Dealer’s view of what the dice are doing, or rather, not doing.