Silvio Petricciani - University of Nevada, Reno

38 Silvio E. Petricciani
we call it the Wheel of Fortune now. And the
other game that was very prevalent in Reno
was Faro Hank. And Faro Bank was probably
the most even game—I say even, in that the
percentage for the house and the customer are
very, very close. And it got quite a play, but it
was a very complicated game. I guess I’m one
of the few people left—I notice in the paper
one day Warren Nelson said that he was the
only one left that could deal Faro Bank. He’s
wrong because there’s myself and my brotherin-law
that can still deal the game very, very
well as a matter of fact, I might say.
But anyway, Faro Bank was quite a game
except that it was a game that was very easy
for the dealer to cheat with. And that was for
or against the house. And in those days there
were—well, the Bank Club had two games
and we had two games here. And insofar
as the clubs were concerned, they were run
very honestly. However, we were able to—I
don’t know about the Bank Club—but I can
say for ourselves here, we were able to detect
many times when the dealer was what shall
we say, shuffling up a deal for the customer
and then split the take later. And of course
those people didn’t work too long, but it
happened. And eventually Faro Bank because
of the protection that it needed and the cost of
running the game—it was a very complicated
game, and it needed two dealers at all times,
and also what they call a casekeeper who kept
track of all the cards as they came out. And
they would have a what they call the dealer
and the lookout. Then they would work a
half an hour on the chair and a half an hour
dealing. So it was very complicated; you know
it was very mentally trying. But because of
the fact that it was such an even game for the
customer and because of the fact that it was
difficult to protect, why it eventually went
on out—went by the wayside. And today, I
mean, you’d be very hard put to find even a
customer that would know how to play it or
would play it. As a matter of fact, we put it in
the Stardust Hotel in Vegas when I was casino
manager there, and of course, I was the only
one down there that knew anything about
Faro Bank. And they asked me if I could set it
up for them. I said, “Yes, I can set it up for you.
And they said, “Well, you don’t seem too
enthusiastic about it.”
I said, “No, I’m not.” I said, “I wouldn’t
deal it with counterfeit money!”
“Oh, well. Go ahead and set it up.
So I set it up for them, and they don’t have
it any more. They changed their mind real
quick. And I went through several different
methods of protecting it that I didn’t know
when we were here. We had a big what we call
a wheel with little pockets in it, had several
decks of cards all the way around. And the
minute they’d get through one deal, one deck
of cards, they would take that deck of cards
and put it back on the wheel and then turn
the wheel over and pick out a deck at random,
and start a new deal; so that they could never
reshuffle the old deck that they’d just dealt out.
And the methods of operations in the
gaming business has changed not in the
operation of the game, but it’s changed in the
rapport that you have between the casino
personnel and the customer. Back in the
old days in the thirties, it was sort of a dog
eat dog affair, you know. You’d come in, and
you were trying to beat me out of something
and I’m watching you to make sure you don’t
and all that kind of thing. And this changed
completely, because after all, the customer
is the person who comes in here and pays
your—what we again call in the vernacular,
the nut. The nut is the expenses, the wages.
And everyone of these places has a nut that
has to be cracked. And that’s what we call
making the wherewithal of paying your
expenses, your wages and your taxes and so