Featured Link

Featured Link: World Book Trade (e-books, awards, videos)

Friday, March 24, 2006

The Friday Brain-teaser from Xrefer

The Friday Brain-teaser from Xrefer - this week: Gambling. Answers here.

1. Which city in Nevada is the self-styled "Gambling Capital of the World?" And it isn't Reno!
2. One of the most popular gambling games is a card game which has two basic forms, called "draw" and "stud." What is the game?
3. Name the gambling game in which a ball is dropped onto a spinning horizontal wheel divided into 37 or 38 coloured and numbered slots.
4. The name of the English card game pontoon probably derives from the French name for the game. What is the French name?
5. What is the word for someone in a casino who presides over a gaming-table, collecting the stakes, dealing the cards, paying the winners, etc.? It comes from a French word for someone who rides pillion on a horse.
6. In horse racing, an accumulator bet is normally made on at least how many races?
7. The most popular gambling card game in Europe has a name which is the French word for "railroad." What is this game called?
8. In a letter in 1783, which famous American described gambling as "the child of avarice, the brother of iniquity, and the father of mischief?"
9. Who wrote the 1875 novel "The Way We Live Now," which portrays a society in which gambling - on the Stock Exchange and in the gentlemen's club - has become a dominant activity?
10. Name the Chinese gambling game in which a pile of coins or counters is placed under a bowl and bets are made on what the remainder will be after they have been divided by four.

No comments: