A venture into the hypnotic lure of the casino

Doug Maag's fingers feel like they're frozen. The late-September night air on Isleta mesa has stiffened his knuckles and he fondles a worn deck of cards in a cramped employee breakroom to warm his fingers. He's due on the casino floor in 15 minutes. "People have a love-hate relationship with us," said Maag, a blackjack dealer at Isleta Gaming Palace. "They'll kiss us when they win and they'll curse us when they lose." The casino is full when Maag takes his first table at 8 p.m. He'll stay until 4 a.m., tossing cards, mentally adding to 21 and scooping cash off green felt tables. Maag is one of 140 blackjack dealers at the palace, a casino owned by Isleta Pueblo, just south of Albuquerque. The gambling hall never closes, and an army of orange-shirted, bolo-tied dealers is always flipping cards and making bad jokes. Maag, 24, is one of the soldiers, but he doesn't think of the game as a battle. "I'm on the player's side," he said. "You aren't going to find anyone rooting louder than the dealer, because people don't tip if they're losing." Dealers receive minimum wage — $4.25 an hour — but they make much more in tips. No one will say exactly how much more because dealers want to avoid the Internal Revenue Service, but casino managers estimate dealers earn between $8 and $12 an hour "We live and die by tips," said Maag, who also refused to say how much he makes, but did say he now makes double his old salary as a reporter in Hobbs. On a Friday night, Maag arrives at his first table as the exiting dealer whispers that the table is cold and the players are fleas — poor tippers. Maag ignores him and works the group, mostly unshaven men in flannel shirts and T-shirts with cigarette logos. "OK, now everyone think good thoughts," he tells his table as he shuffles six sets of cards. "You can blame me if these cards aren't good." Courtesy laughter. The next round begins. Maag throws lots of 19s and 20s. Then he busts. Everyone cheers, including Maag, who pockets several tips. On the next hand, he hits a blackjack and clears the table. Everyone moans. Hot. Cold. Up. Down. So it goes for a half hour until his first break. "It's a different kind of job," Maag said. "You can have thousands of dollars being pushed around the table in less than a minute. It can be a lot of pressure.

The game, the drama, watching things unfold. It can be really exciting and then, in an instant, it's over." In the smoky breakroom, dealers eat frozen yogurt, rub each other's .backs and play no-ante rummy while talking about lousy tippers, estranged spauses and new cars. Slapping cards on a blackjack table is probably the last thing Maag, a Syracuse University-educated journalism major, expected to do for a living. But after a year and a half at tiny newspapers — including a seven-month stint as a business reporter in Hobbs — Maag decided he wanted to do something else. He worked as a press secretary for Senate Republicans during the 1995 legislative session and hoped to land a permanent spot with the state, but when the legislators went home in March, Maag didn't have a job. He moved to Albuquerque and tried to find one, but no one was hiring. During the legislative session, he saw gambling grow as a major industry and decided to find a temporary job at a casino. That was four months ago. "I started doing this to make money while I was looking for something else," Maag said. "Now I love it. I'll probably stay here for a while." Some do stay. Others leave quickly. Their reasons for doing the job vary as wildly as the number of ways you can hit 21 from a shoe with six decks. Monica Van Orman was a housewife. Now the 21-year-old mother of a 2-year-old son deals cards and cracks jokes for a living. Her husband, Robert, 22, quit his "mundane" job as an assembler at Honeywell and joined his wife as a dealer at the casino. "Before, his job was just a job," she said. "Now we have fun while we work. I like that my family thinks I'm important here. Like I'm a big shot because I'm a dealer." Jan Rudas, "39 and holding," left a $50,000 a year job as an accountant at a San Diego car dealership to deal cards. "You don't have to carry anything home in your head or your attache case," she said. John Williams, 44, a former logger in Washington state, moved to Albuquerque to care for his ailing 90-year-old grandmother. He'll deal poker here as long as his grandmother needs him. "Sometimes it's a hard job because dealers get treated pretty bad," he said. "People throw cards at you, curse at you. I know where they're coming from so I don't take it personally."

Most of the time, though, Williams likes his job. "It's not much different than playing in your kitchen with a bunch of friends," he said. "You build a rapport with the people who come to your table. You get involved in the drama of the game." Maag likes to tell a story about a little old man who lost a stack of money at a table, took out a pocket notebook and scribbled the dealer's name. Next to it, he wrote the word "poison." "I have regulars, people who think I'm lucky," he said. "Some see me and walk the other way." Other dealers talk about a guy who came to the casino a few weeks ago, won $7,000 in two hours and didn't tip any of his dealers. "A real cheap bastard," as one of the dealers said. Maag finishes his dish of chocolate frozen yogurt, puts the conversations out of his head and returns to the tables. A short, middle-age man in a rumpled, button down shirt takes a seat at Maag's $5-minimum table. He hands over $30 worth of crumpled one dollar bills. Maag's smile falls, he breathes a slight sigh and unballs the money for the overhead cameras. Then he brightens. "What are you, man, a stripper?" Maag asks and the other gamblers laugh. A few minutes later, the man hits a 20 and Maag says, "If you win this hand, you won't need to jiggle it for money anymore." The man wins and smiles. More laughter. And so it goes until 4 a.m., when Maag deals his last hand. Although his eyes are drooping, the casino is still wide awake and the tables are full. It could be Las Vegas, but once outside, you remember that it's not. Albuquerque shut down hours ago. The only thing Maag can do at 4 a.m. is cash in his tips, slip on his jacket and brave the cold morning air on the dark mesa. He needs his sleep. After all, in just seven hours Maag will be back at work, shuffling, dealing and like the gamblers, hoping a big one hits.

TEGWAR Exciting Game Without Any Rules

I bet you 50 cents that your first card game was Old Maid or Fish. From there you moved to bigger and better things, even a little penny blackjack, right? Now of course you hit the big time, poker (where I come from, "bridge" is how you get to Brooklyn). But if you find yourself losing too much money or you're just bored with poker, try "TEGWAR," an original and challenging game created by author Mark Harris in his novel "Bang the Drum Slowly," which has now been made into a movie. Now that you know where TEGWAR came from, I will secretly pass on to you the what of TEGWAR. Greater minds than ours will soon discover the why TEGWAR is a different game. The letters T-E-G-W-A-R stand for The Exciting Game Without Any Rules, and that is what it's all about. I am betraying a trust in explaining the game, and I'm certain that from now on I will become a marked man. But anyway, here goes. First, to understand TEGWAR we must know the rules. Of course you have just read where there are no rules, so that is the first rule. Therefore: Rule #7 - There are no rules. This rule must be obeyed if there is to be a game. Rule #2 - Only four persons can play this game, unless there are two of you or three, or five, or six or whatever. One of these persons, who is known as "The Fish" but never called that, knows all the rules of card playing and must have confidence in himself as a man and TEGWAR player, even if he's never played before.

The Fish begins by putting money on the table, keeping this up while other players or player or combination of the same add to, subtract from or equal the money The Fish keeps putting on the table while the same is done or abstained from by the players or person or people across the room. Any variance of this rule can cause a misdeal, except in the third match of the evening which nullifies itself any hour before the 6 p.m. news, unless it's 10:45, in which case this rule still applies. Rule #3 - In the game itself, 12 cards are dealt out, two to each player except the player on the right who plays the discards. If in the dealing out of the two cards, a player can end the game in the following fashion by calling out "Fit 'n Fine" or "Red Rooster" (the highest count and perfect natural), both cards adding up to 15 is a perfect match or natural and this ends the game. Now the winner stays out while the other players play for the second best which can and usually does eliminate the original winner because he had no right to be there in the first place. Rule #4 - If a player has been losing all night long, the biggest winner is penalized and must give half of his winnings back to the loser, and in a head to head TEGWAR showdown the hands are dealt in rapid fashion and the black jack is the joker unless dealt in the previous round whereupon the Change of Seats Play comes into effect and the player without any is the first to sit, winning or losing, if the pot is full.

Rule #5 - I would think so, but see section below to make sure. Rule #6 - At this time of the night all previous commentary is to be played out, dealers dealing from the bottom of the unused deck, face up and counterclockwise. Rule #7 - If a player is taller than the minimum, then a cover charge is to be added to the 7,5 percent Rule #8 - A change of partners can only occur when the rule applies to the situation calling for a change. Rule #9 - The first team or individual scoring 300 points or more has the first "beckett" or "knowlton" - 3 "knowltons" equal 1 (one) "beckett," which doesn't count in the final tally. Rule #10 Anyone caught cheating is to be penalized three "trydons," which can be deadly especially if you're playing for money. These are the basic rules in TEGWAR (advanced players will probably want to make up more), but you don't have to follow any of the rules because there are no rules in TEGWAR except the naturals and true love. Everybody should play TEGWAR, especially families who don't talk to one another. This will solidify the break. If there are any questions that's good. It shows you have interest and a lively mind. Please make 15 copies of these rules and send them to friends. The first one who breaks the chain will hear from the others.

Gambling Inroads On Society in Large Cities

Last winter a Chicago clergyman preached a sermon on progressive euchre and astonished a church full of people by denouncing that mildly intoxicating game as "a snare set by Satan to lure Christian people to perdition." At that time progressive euchre had become a craze, says the Herald of that city, though for what reason would puzzle even one of its devotees to tell. Old card players who would sit up all night without growing drowsy in a game of poker or whist thought progressive euchre extremely stupid, and scarcely could be induced to take a hand in it. But society, or at least that part of society that is not expert at all kinds of card games, became so enthusiastic that clubs were organized and euchre parties were given several evenings each week at the homes of members. Entire evenings were spent in card playing, and to stimulate the interest of the players souvenirs were presented to the winners. At first these favors were expressive, but simple and inexpensive; then a spirit of competition set in among the hosts, and in trying to outdo each other they drifted to. extravagance and to costly gifts. The fad became epidemic. Persons who had grown to manhood and womanhood without over having touched a playing card succumbed to the seductive influence of progressive euchre, and became so fascinated with the game that they would sit up night after night, and sometimes nearly all night, to play it. It was such an innocent game, they thought, that no harm could possibly ever come from it, and even staid old church members, solemn visaged deacons and not a few parsons sanctioned the game and played it. In fact church going, Bible loving people became its most enthusiastic devotees.

Worldly, sin-worn people alone escaped. Such was the popularity of progressive euchre when an old-fashioned orthodox divine on the west side strayed away from conventional texts and hit upon the social craze as a theme for his sermon. He did not object to the game simply because it was a divertisment with playing cards, but because it had become a craze and was turning the heads of Christian men and women, so infatuating them that they were neglecting their religious and other duties and drifting rapidly toward society rapids. Many who listened to the sober earnestness with which tho minister warned them against progressive euchre were inclined to laugh. Some thought he was needlessly alarmed, and that his religious training and devotion to Christianity had made him so puritanical that ho saw nothing but evil in any amusement not directly associated with the prayer meeting and the Bible class, while others attributed the sermon to a desire on the part of the minister to gain notoriety by being cheaply sensational. But, no matter what the preacher`s motive may have been, he was not far astray when he said that progressive euchre was leading church people into society rapids. It was certain to do that when it became tainted with gambling and the pretty little favors that were won by the players in the early stages of the game were an insidious, seductive form of gambling that was sure to develop in the infatuated players of progressive euchre a passion for bigger stakes and for games of far more dangerous character. Without a flavor of gambling progressive euchre never could have become popular, and even with the costly prizes that enchanced the pleasure of Its players it is surprising that so stupid a game could so enchain society as long as it did.

It served society`s purpose for a passing fad, but when the novelty wore off and the gambling fever that it produced had stimulated a craving for bigger stakes society began seeking for something to take its place. The natural sequence was poker. There is nothing stupid or tiresome about poker, and it satisfies the most vivid longings of the gambling thirst. Of all the many games at cards it is the most fascinating, and it was the game of all others to furnisn society amusement when society became satiated with progressive euchre. But despite the many lurements of poker it did hot so readily find favor as the much less infatuating euchre, for when the men game of who had grown tired of euchre attempted to substitute an out and out gambling game the ladies remonstrated against playing cards for money in the parlors of their homes. They objected also to the game because professional gamblers played it, and that made it vulgar. But once they became interested their scruples were easily overcome, and when they found that without betting poker is no more interesting that old maid they consented to play for small stakes the outset, before tho game fairly obtained a foothold, the ante was but a penny and bets were limited to a quarter. But gambling knows no conscience, and as society learned how to gamble and became more enraptured the ante and the limit grew bigger. This winter society has fairly gone crazy over poker, and gambling, even among church members, has become so prevalent that ministers are beginning to mention it in their pulpits and at prayer meetings. In thousands of homes where no other form of vice would be countenanced poker playing is frequently indulged in, and at swell receptions many of the guests seek the card-rooms and devote the entire evening to poker. Saturday night, however, is the poker night of the week, and it is then that the clubs assemble and spend the evening in play. In some of the homes of swelldom the play runs high, and bets are made with such reckless abandon that professional gamblers would open their eyes with astonishment could they look in on some of the social poker games and see the nonchalance with which beautiful women stack up chips on a bobtail flush.