Member-only story
The 3-Card Monte Problem of a Gun Registry or Confiscation in America
And the real winner is…
3 Card Monte is a scam. In short, the dealer shows you the queen of hearts and then after moving the cards in a somewhat rapid, serpentine pattern for a few moments, asks you to find the queen. Find the queen? Double your money.
The scam involves a simple, but devastatingly effective sleight of hand that makes it nearly impossible to know which card is the one that will pay out.
Normally, the sleight of hand works — and the red queen is not where you guess. Sometimes the dealer will let you win a few early hands, only to wipe you out in the subsequent games.
In the unlikely event that you randomly guess correctly and try to leave the table before you’re cleaned out (you have a 50% chance if you simply guess one of the cards that isn’t the “obvious” choice they want you to pick) then you will win the privilege of getting beaten up and robbed by the dealer’s accomplices who are waiting nearby.
But unless you know the sleight of hand, you never really know where the red queen might turn up.
I hope this information has been helpful, but I also hope it helps explain why a gun registry is an impossible dream in the United States.
