John Scarne was an American authority and author on games and gambling.
Background
John Scarne was born on March 4, 1903, in Steubenville, Ohio, United States, into the family of Fiorangelo and Maria (Tamburro) Scarne. He grew up in the New Jersey communities of Fairview and Guttenberg. When he left school after the eighth grade, he learned from a local card sharp how to perform such swindles as The Three Card Monte, and how to cheat in gambling card games by manipulating the cards. Scarne began practicing sleight of hand with the goal of becoming a card sharp, but his religious mother dissuaded her son from gambling in general, and cheating others in particular. She persuaded him to practice magic instead. Scarne soon extended his skill at handling cards to learning — and devising — magical effects with cards.
Education
John attended public schools in Guttenberg, New Jersey, and Fairview, New Jersey, but he left school after eighth grade.
Career
Thanks to his endless practice during his teenage years, Scarne began making money as a magician. Gradually, Scarne became quite an expert at not only magical effects, but games of all kinds as well. Articles were written about him in various magazines, and he was hired as a consultant or adviser by various companies, as well as by the US Army, which sent him to bases around the world in order to educate soldiers about the dangers of card and dice cheats. John wrote fifteen books and co-wrote a few more for a total of twenty-eight books on games, such as "Scarne on Dice", "Scarne's Guide to Modern Poker", and "Scarne's New Complete Guide to Gambling." He also wrote two autobiographies: "The Amazing World of John Scarne: A Personal History", and "The Odds Against Me." He also served as a technical advisor in the 1973 motion picture, "The Sting", and doubled for actor Paul Newman's hands during scenes that involved card manipulations and deck switching.
Nevertheless, John was happiest when inventing and marketing through his company John Scarne Games Inc., new games, which he did quite a bit. And he was especially proud of one called Teeko, which he invented in 1945, re-invented in 1952 and modified in the 1960s. The versatile Scarne was also a teacher of celebrity magicians such as Orson Welles and the Duke of Windsor, and a consultant to corporations and governments that had casino interests, as well as to the FBI.
Scarne's most famous card trick was appropriately titled "Scarne's Aces". Scarne also created a quadruple coincidence, wherein a spectator selects a card and four impossible predictions of their card are made. Scarne contributed articles on his area of expertise to two major encyclopedias, the World Book Encyclopedia and the Encyclopedia Britannica. He died on July 7, 1985 at the age of 82, while living in North Bergen, New Jersey.