Solitaire and gambling

For a brief time at the beginning of the 20th century, solitaire was possibly played for money at some American gambling houses.

The most frequently recounted history involves the game being invented and played in the venues of famed gambler, art collector, and illegal casino operator Richard Canfield, not least because versions of the game would later bear his name.

“Later” is key here, because from available records, it appears that the Canfield name was not applied to the game until several years after its supposed hey day.

First-hand evidence of the game actually being played at his (or any) establishments is scant to non-existent. The most likely set of events is that the gambling version of the game - as described below - was played for money in some gambling venues, but not at Canfield’s, and that the Canfield name was later applied to the game due to his name’s synonymity with gambling. Some years later, authors connected the game’s name with the man, and thus began the legend.

Key Facts

• A dice game called Klondike was played extensively in gambling houses beginning in around 1900.
  There are numerous police reports of “Klondike tables” being discovered and seized in gambling raids. These are almost certainly tables for the dice game.
• A gambling version of Solitaire, named Klondike and Seven-Card Klondike, was described in Edmond Hoyle’s 1907 Hoyle’s games¹ and was purportedly played for money.
• The Canfield name was applied to this solitaire by Harris B. Dick, in his 1908 edition of Dick’s Games of Patience or Solitaire².

Things that are likely true

1. Scoring and payout

The player pays $52 to play, and receives $5 for each card successfully moved to the foundations by the completion of the game. All sources are clear on this fact, nothwithstanding the use of dissimilar terms:

The banker sells a pack of 52 cards for $52, and he agrees to pay $5 for every card the player gets down in the “top line,” so that if he gets 11 or more down, he wins; if he gets 10 or less, he loses.

Hoyle, Edmond (1907), Hoyle’s games, New York, The McClure company

And later:

The only form of solitaire ever played in an American gambling house was a game in which the bank sold a pack of cards for fifty-two dollars, and paid the player five dollars for each pip visible on the ace pile when the game had ended, kings being rated at thirteen, queens at twelve, and jacks at eleven. This game had a brief vogue in a few New York resorts around 1905 and 1906

Asbury, Herbert (1938), Sucker’s progress : an informal history of gambling in America from the colonies to Canfield, New York, Dodd, Mead & Co.³

The only source that differs on this, is Wikipedia, which quotes the cost to play from some sources as $50. Those sources are Philip Morehead’s 2001 (and earlier) edition of Hoyle’s Rules of Games⁴. Given Edmond Hoyle’s Hoyle’s games quoted the cost at $52 in 1907, it seems safe to ignore these later sources.

2. The game itself

Despite the many names given, there are only two games discussed in the literature:

1. Demon / Demon Patience / Fascination / “Canfield”

This is the game described Whitmore Jones in her 1891 Magazine article (penned under the pseudonym Devonia), and published in the third series of her comprehensive patience books the following year. It is described in the 1907 edition of Hoyle’s games¹ as “probably the original form”.

There are minor variations (e.g. the order of dealing of the first base/start (i.e. foundation) card - and the four heads of the columns/bottom-line (i.e. tableau) are reversed), but it is substantially the same game.

2. Klondike / Seven-Card Klondike / Gambler’s Delight / The Step Ladder / “Canfield”

The second game described is Seven-Card Klondike, which is exactly the game as we know it today, with the addition of the aforementioned payout based on the number of foundation cards at completion, and some variations regarding turning the stock and recycling the waste.

The game is named Gambler’s Delight in Tarbart’s 1905 edition of Patience Games⁵, Seven-Card Klondike in Edmond Hoyle’s 1907 Hoyle’s games¹, and Canfield by Harris B. Dick, in his 1908 edition of Dick’s Games of Patience or Solitaire², the first known use of the name. In the book, Dick attempts to copyright the name. Hapgood also uses the Canfield name in his 1908 Solitaire and Patience ⁶.

Interestingly, the turn-3 version of the game is named The Step Laddder in William Dalton’s 1909 Strand Magazine article My Favourite Patiences⁷, and the turn-1, no-recycling-the-waste version is called The Canfield. Dalton references Tarbart’s Gambler’s Delight name, saying:

In a Patience book which I was looking at a few days ago this particular Patience was called “ The Gamblers Delight,” although I cannot conceive what delight the gambler could find in such a very mild form of speculation.

He then goes on to detail The Canfield, and provides a “story about it”:

The story told about it is that it was exploited in the bars and saloons of the United States by a man named Canfield, who is said to have won a great deal of money at it.

His modus operandi was to induce other men to play it by offering to pay them a dollar for every card which they got off if they would give him ten dollars to start with, No one knew what the right odds were, and it seemed very tempting to give ten dollars for the chance of getting back fifty-two—for there is always the chance of getting it right out, and that is what lures people on.

This story seems disconnected from known facts, likely due to the fact that it is recounted by an author living in England. The story continues, citing events that stretches one’s credulity:

The first time that I saw this Patience played was in a house-party for Ascot races. Someone introduced it, and everybody had a go at it except one man. On the last evening he said: “I should like to have one try at that Patience. I will take fifty shillings, and give anybody five shillings for each card.” He was promptly accommodated, and, according to the usual contrariety of fate, it came right out for the first time during the week, and it cost him ten pounds ten shillings. He will probably remember the circumstance, if this should happen to meet his eye.

Dalton, William (1909), My Favourite Patiences, The Strand Magazine, Vol. 38, pp.791-8. London, George Newnes, Ltd.⁷

Fact three: Timing

Timing is challenging to nail down, because it is known that a domino game by the same name - Klondike - was played at around the same time, and in the same venues.

In Midwestern, as in Eastern, spas, gambling was a major attraction. The waters of French Lick, Indiana, were widely publicized for their cure-all qualities, but they never relieved the fever to play poker, faro, Klondike and craps. Games were operated by professional sharpers who made a very good thing of separating visitors there for health from their spare cash.

Women especially reveled in the slot machines, while a poolroom enabled horse fanciers to bet on the races. The games, said a reformed gambler, were “not on the square and the gambling devices [were] fixed to cheat the player.” The slot machine was rigged to win 80 per cent of the time; the use of loaded dice was common. But of them all Klondike was the biggest trap. An electric battery was usually hidden under the table where the Klondike layout was spread out. Magnets were installed in the dice and by manipulation of wires to the battery could be made to fall as the house deemed expedient. A copper wire ran through a leg of the table to a brass screw in the floor to complete the circuit and carry the current. The houseman could always lift the table and show suspicious suckers that there was no mechanical device attached to the table to rig the game. Then. he put it back on the screw and the house went right on exercising its electrical domination of the dice.

Chafetz, Henry (1960), Play the devil: a history of gambling in the United States from 1492 to 1955, New York,: C. N. Potter
Emphasis added

The numerous police reports of Klondike tables and “layouts” being seized during raids, almost certainly refer to this dice game. e.g.:

The alleged gambling place was situated over a liquor saloon. Upon the arrival of the official raiders at the stairway leading to the alleged gambling rooms their way was blocked by Max Franck. He tried to throw Mr. Comstock into the street. He was subdued after a short but lively tussle and was marched up stairs. So Intent were the men In the rooms on the games In progress that they were undisturbed by the scuffle. There were about a dozen players present and they were all ordered out by Mr. Comstock. In the front room he seized one Klondike table, one double end roulette table, and one red and black table.

The New York Times, December 21, 1899

The detectives had to break their way into the poolroom with sledge hammers, and in the meantime a great deal of the evidence was destroyed by Moss in a coal scuttle in the rear room. Racing sheets and 20O membership tickets for the club were found. In addition to a large green table chalked out with squares for playing “Klondike.” After breaking the legs off with an axe, the table was carried In a patrol wagon to Mercer Street Station.

The New York Times, August 5, 1906

This leaves us with little evidence of when the game was played, if at all. Asbury states that it was played in “in a few New York resorts around 1905 and 1906” ³.

Hoyle’s 1907 book simply describes the game, with no claim of it being played anywhere.

Richard Fox’s 1905 edition of “Fox’s Revised edition of Hoyle’s Games” makes no mention of it under any name; nor does Hoffman’s 1909 Hoyle’s Games Modernized.

The rest is speculation

Beyond these facts, it’s is difficult to say much with any degree of confidence.

Our Canfield Solitaire article provides some additional details on the matter.