# Three-card monte

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/three-card-monte/266657>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [September 29, 2004, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/three-card-monte/266657 "2004-09-29T12:41:16Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![FlippyFly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e95f7d/32.png) [@FlippyFly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlippyFly)\
**Post date:** [September 30, 2004, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/three-card-monte/266657/21 "2004-09-30T13:53:54Z")

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> [@C K Dexter Haven](#):
>
> I’ve never bet on a game, nor watched one (except a magician doing it as a friendly sleight-of-hand trick, no shills and no bets)… how much is the average bet on the street?

The time I saw this game (in Budapest, if you must know) the guy tried to bet $20 and the dealer said “Man, make it worth my time. Bet $50 at least” and the fool did indeed pony up his bet.

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**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\
**Post date:** [September 30, 2004, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/three-card-monte/266657/22 "2004-09-30T14:17:10Z")

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> [@C K Dexter Haven](#):
>
> I’ve never bet on a game, nor watched one (except a magician doing it as a friendly sleight-of-hand trick, no shills and no bets)… how much is the average bet on the street?

Usually it’s the equivalent of ten to twenty dollars. I watched one group in Barcelona for about an hour and they got two suckers. It doesn’t seem like a good living to me either.

Haj

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**Author:** ![absimia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bbe5ce/32.png) [@absimia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/absimia)\
**Post date:** [September 30, 2004, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/three-card-monte/266657/23 "2004-09-30T14:25:19Z")

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> [@C K Dexter Haven](#):
>
> Just slightly puzzled – most of you are saying that there’s a dealer and four or five others (shill, encourager, etc)? How much money do they usually make on a bet, that they can pay that large a staff? (I mean, OK, sure, there’s no social security deduction and no tax, but still…)

I was about to say what **FlippyFly** and **RealityChuck** said and then add that I don’t think your average short con crew is raking it in…but I see that once again I was beat to the punch…this time by **Haj** I have also heard the advice from Harry Anderson (who, as I recall, was a monte thrower before he got beat up a few too many times and became a Magician/actor) that the crew will watch to see how much money you have in your wallet when you pull it out to bet and will try and get out of you what ever you have. He suggested, if you wanted to throw your money away for the experience of being hustled, to have the money you’re about to lose out. As **hajario** said, it happens so damn fast and is confusing, that you’re often broke before you know you’ve been fleeced.

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