Meaning of the word: Sharper

Usage area

This is a widely used term, known not only to professionals,but also to any inhabitant who is not familiar with the gambling industry. 

Description

Sharper – a fraudster who uses gambling methods and tricks prohibited by the rules.

In Russian, the word came from Polish (szuler) or Czech (šuleř), where it means "deceiver".

Sharps use a variety of techniques and tricks in card games, allowing them to achieve a positive result. Let's highlight some of them:

• Fraudulent methods shuffle the deck,
• Twisting cards,
• Marking cards,
• Spying on the opponent's cards or the croupier,
• Exchange cards with accomplices,
• False ways of trimming the deck and so on.

In addition, sharpers often cheat with dice, using such tricks:

• Loaded dice,
• Controlled throw,
• Substitution of cubes and the like.

Roulette cheats do not work less skilfully, by resorting to the following methods:

• Stealing chips,
• Rate substitution,
• Adding tokens to winning bets and the like.

In fraudulent casinos, dealers can also be cheaters. They distort the decks, give customers obviously losing combinations of cards and so on. 

Synonyms

Ridden