Biribi, biribissi (in Italian), or cavagnole (in French), is an Italian game of chance similar to roulette, played for low stakes. It is played on a board on which the numbers 1 to 70 are marked.[1] The game was banned in Italy in 1837.
The players put their stakes on the numbers they wish to back. The banker is provided with a bag from which he draws a case containing a ticket, the tickets corresponding with the numbers on the board. The banker calls out the number, and any players who backed it receive sixty-four times their stake; all other stakes go to the banker.[2]
Casanova played it in Genoa (illegally, for it was already banned there) and the South of France in the 1760s, and describes it as "a regular cheats' game".[3][4] He broke the bank (fairly, he claims) and was immediately rumored to have been in collusion with the bag-holder; such collusion, presumably, was common.[5]
In the French army, "to be sent to Biribi" was a cant term for being sent to the disciplinary battalions in Algeria.[2]
References
edit- ^ Dumas, Alexandre (1998). Twenty Years After. Oxford University Press, UK. pp. 836–. ISBN 978-0-19-283843-8. Retrieved 23 May 2019.
- ^ a b One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Biribi". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 3 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 981.
- ^ "Manuscript Biribi Game from the 18th century". Antiquariat | Steffen Völkel GmbH (in German). Retrieved 2024-07-17.
- ^ The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova (Voulme 5)
- ^ Lathan, Sharon (2016-07-11). "Cavagnole". Sharon Lathan, Novelist. Retrieved 2024-07-17.
