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Category:
Gambling, Casinos, Lotteries and Other Games of Chance

Doc Owens, Con Man

As early as December 1900, the notorious Doc Owens was making headlines, having established his racket of fleecing sea-going sheep.



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READ LEFT-HAND COLUMN, THEN RIGHT-HAND COLUMN, THEN SAME FOR THE TWO FOLLOWING.

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Three years later, The New York Times did a special feature on Owens and his fellows (with his photo miscaptioned).

Click here for very readable PDF download.

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But Owens was to meet poetic justice in 1912, as our final piece reveals.

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Chicken Poop Bingo

The rules are that players bet on a 54-number grid. Then they wait for a chicken to poop somewhere on the grid. So it sounds more like Chicken Poop Roulette, than Bingo, since you don't wait to get a bingo. According to the Wall Street Journal, the game was invented in a New Orleans bar during the 1980s. There's also a version that involves cow poop.

Posted By: Alex | Date: Mon Oct 29, 2012 | Comments (8)
Category: Sports, Excrement, Gambling, Casinos, Lotteries and Other Games of Chance

Two Postcards

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I just bought these yesterday from my favorite used-book store, Cellar Stories Books, and thought I would share them with you all.

Long-Term Betting on Your Kids

According to the BBC, it's becoming increasingly popular for parents to place long-term bets with bookmakers on whether their kids will achieve fame and fortune during their lives. For instance, whether their kid will become a famous soccer player or a great golfer:

A particular type of long-time achievement bet - parents having a bet on their children achieving something in their life - has increased tenfold in the past five years, according to Ladbrokes.
"Parents betting on their children's future successes is as popular as betting on the final of the X Factor," says Jessica Bridge, from the firm.
...it's not all about sporting prowess, he says. Many parents will place bets that their children will pass a particular exam. And then there was the grandmother who thought her granddaughter so beautiful that she wagered she would grace the front cover of a leading fashion magazine.
"People do it for a variety of reasons," says Sharpe. "They are demonstrating that they have real faith in someone - have every confidence in them. They may be using it as an incentive. Or it could just be a bit of fun. Something to talk about, or put on the wall.

If only my parents had placed a bet when I was a child that I would grow up to be a blogger at Weird Universe, they'd be rich! Although the internet didn't exist back then, so it would have been a real longshot bet.
Posted By: Alex | Date: Wed Jul 11, 2012 | Comments (4)
Category: Family, Children, Games, Gambling, Casinos, Lotteries and Other Games of Chance

Follies of the Mad Men #149

winner sperm from roni kleiner on Vimeo.



That's non-USA-style football, natch!
Posted By: Paul | Date: Fri Jul 01, 2011 | Comments (2)
Category: Business, Advertising, Sports, Gambling, Casinos, Lotteries and Other Games of Chance, Pregnancy

Crab Fights



How bored do you have to be to stage a crab fight?

Follies of the Mad Men #103

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Something different for this installment: an old postcard.

Why would any casino want to depict their customer as a drooling cretin?

The verse on the back says:

AT SYSTEMS, MATH, COMPUTERS ALL, I'VE BEEN CONSIDERED APT.

BUT THEN I LAID MY MONEY DOWN, AND WHAT DO YOU KNOW..."I CRAPPED!"
Posted By: Paul | Date: Wed May 19, 2010 | Comments (3)
Category: Art, Poetry, Gambling, Casinos, Lotteries and Other Games of Chance
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All original content in posts is Copyright © 2008 by the author of the post, either Alex Boese ("Alex"), Paul Di Filippo ("Paul"), or Chuck Shepherd ("Chuck"). All rights reserved. The banner illustration at the top of this page is Copyright © 2008 by Rick Altergott.