The History of Three-Card Monte
Article by Sébastien Thill
Who hasn't seen one of these men with an improvised gaming table in a bustling street, at a fair, at a racecourse, at a flea market, coming out of a metro station, or at the foot of the Eiffel Tower?
He manipulates three face-down cards, and the goal, based on the principle of Russian roulette, is to find the Queen of Hearts, lost among two black pip cards.
Three-card monte is also known as "find the lady" or "find the lady" in English. Around him, individuals gather and bet money to find the location of the red card, in what seems like a simple game.
There are many variations of this wager: finding a marble among three cups, a pea among three half-walnut shells, or a noose on a chain among two fake loops.
But it's always the same principle: the apparent simplicity of the game, and the high probability of winning (at least one in three chance).
Furthermore, three-card monte plays on a well-known psychological principle: "intermittent reinforcement."
This principle is the source of an addiction that is difficult to combat and is, of course, well known to casinos and social media designers: the expectation of a win or interesting content (in this case, a win) makes us compulsively scroll our feed endlessly or pull the arm of a slot machine, until we potentially hit the jackpot that "could be next."
It is, in fact, motivated by the sight of other gamblers easily winning money, that strollers and tourists gather around the manipulator: everyone wants to try their luck!
And yet, even with the feeling of not having taken their eyes off the famous "red queen," no one will find it and will inevitably lose their money.
Nine times out of ten, it is a foreign tourist who is scammed by the three-card monte. On the Champs-Élysées, the trend is currently to manipulate three black wooden discs, one of which is marked with a white spot. This is the "three-disk monte."
But do you really know the history of this famous scam?
Timeless and resilient through all eras, three-card monte is not new and actually dates back to the Middle Ages.
At that time, the monte dealer played with a nut, a cork ball ("escamot"), or a bean hidden under cups or shells.
One of the most famous representations of this scam is undoubtedly an oil on wood painting made between 1475 and 1505 by Hieronymus Bosch, a Dutch painter, and titled "The Conjurer."
The "jugglers" or "bateleurs" were street illusionists who practiced the equivalent of "three-card monte." There are 5 versions of this painting, and scenes of jugglers have been reinterpreted several times throughout history.
In 1969, this theme was re-used by Tim, a caricaturist and satirical cartoonist for the French newspaper L'Express, a few days before the referendum on Senate reform and regionalization.
General de Gaulle was depicted as the conjurer, holding a nutmeg in the shape of an "o" for "oui" (yes) in one hand, while the magic wand was replaced by an electoral urn.
The staging is always the same, a skillfully woven web around the victims: around the monte dealer, the card manipulator, there are 4 or 5 "barons" who are his accomplices. To ensure that passers-by bet with certainty, these "barons" bet and win in turn. At the same time, the other accomplices draw in potential gamblers, watch out for the possible arrival of the police, and push away any angry losers.
Once the trap is set, when the accomplices are betting, the monte dealer manipulates the cards so that the red queen is easily identifiable.
They constantly shout, "Where is the queen, quickly, quickly?" to pique the curiosity of passers-by in the street or in the often noisy square.
Confident due to the simplicity of the game and the accomplices' winnings, passers-by do not hesitate to bet 20, 50, or even 100 euros for the most confident!
At this point, the monte dealer no longer throws the red queen card (which is underneath) first onto the table, but the one on top. The victim can hardly perceive this cunning manipulation.
If by chance, this were the case, the monte dealer can still swap the good card for a bad one.
Otherwise, the player does win, but the accomplices expressly ask him to replay to double his bet while the monte dealer possibly makes sure to give him a fake bill!
In short, the scam is well orchestrated: accomplices, conditioning, building trust at first with slow card manipulation, and finally, sleight of hand with the cards (speed, palming, turning over, etc.).
Although prohibited, like any street scam, it is often difficult for the police to catch the scammers red-handed.
In France, three-card monte is prohibited because it involves a game of chance played in public with money at stake (Article L. 324-1 of the Internal Security Code). The monte dealer and his accomplices can also be prosecuted for the offense of fraud (Article L. 313-1 of the French Penal Code). The maximum penalty incurred is three years in prison and a fine of 375,000 Euros.
When they catch them, police officers, often from tourist security units, must arrest the monte dealer and his accomplices. But also, the victims in order to qualify the offense as fraud. These scammers, often from organized gangs, can earn several thousand euros in a single day. And most importantly, ruin the day for many tourists.
Magicians quickly adopted three-card monte, this time to entertain their audience, and why not warn them of the risks of this still-popular scam.
It's amusing to see that in Hieronymus Bosch's painting, many principles of conjuring are displayed: lead time (accessories hidden behind the table), misdirection (eye games), accomplices (the pickpocket), the art of concealment (the owl in the basket and even a face formed by the objects placed on the table!)
If you want to know more about this painting, do not hesitate to read the catalog "Hieronymus Bosch and the Conjurer" published by the Municipal Museum of Saint Germain en Laye and the Somogy Art Editions, in 2002, on the occasion of the restoration and exhibition of this work in Saint Germain en Laye.
All means are good to astonish the public: rigged cards, magnetized cups, final effect (cards transform, a fruit appears under each cup, cups are full and cannot contain anything...), Bob Hummer's principle, Green Neck System, appearance of a fourth cup (Dominique Duvivier), mental three-card monte, Wild Card, equivocal choice, forcing, Michael Skinner's Ultimate 3-card monte, etc.
And why not imagine other versions, with new constraints: blank cards, entire deck, other objects (photos, small boxes, sachets, credit or transport cards, business cards, liquids, Russian roulette, keys opening a padlock, dated coins, stamps, jewelry in a case).
In short, three-card monte has not finished surprising us, for better or for worse, not hesitating to spoil the day of so many tourists!