Girolamo Cardano, the scholar who loved to gamble

Girolamo Cardano was an Italian who lived in the 1500’s who wrote a book called Liber de Lude Aleae (Book on Games of Chance) about the games that were popular among his contemporaries, specifically dice-based games, card games as well as backgammon. Interestingly, Liber de Lude Aleae was published posthumously – about a hundred years after his death – but still managed to be influential in the treatment of probability theory.

Cardano has been described by James McManus, author of Cowboys Full, as the quintessential “Renaissance Man” with expert knowledge of mathematics, music and medicine and some rather strong opinions about the ethics of poker.

Cardano has useful advice for poker players as well as some great observations and anecdotes in Liber de Lude Aleae.

Here are some tips and observations from Cardano, 1500’s style:

1.    Gambling is "One of the incurable diseases"

While Cardano defended gambling as an acceptable pursuit he also did warn that it can lead to destructive and unhealthy outcomes. He cautions players to only play in moderation and never simply to relieve boredom. He says reading or painting are far better ways to pass time as they do not "present a bad example... to one's children and servants." Despite this Cardano did believe gambling had some “useful features”. He saw it as “a means of gaining friendship.” He deemed it one of the “incurable diseases” because so many people felt the urge to play.

2.    Seek fairness: "The most fundamental principle of gambling"

Cardano has some chapters on dice games that feature lots of equations and probabilities that perhaps would go over the heads most readers but do offer some good practical observations on gambling:

"The most fundamental principle of gambling is simply equal conditions"

This is Cardano’s way of saying that collusion should be avoided. He regarded collusion as cheating or starting distracting table talk.

He notes that gambling is not disgraceful if it is fair and all players are equally aware of what they’re getting in to.

3.    Remain vigilant: "Let no one examine the cards in private"

Keep an eye out for cheats. Obviously there was just as much marking cards, stacking the deck, dealing from the bottom and use of mirrors to cheat going on in 16th-century Italy as there is today.

His advice for avoiding cheaters and cheating is to have your own set of cards and to not allow anyone to examine these cards in private.
4.    Choose cards over dice: "It is more fitting for the wise man to play at cards than dice"

There are apparently some very relevant differences between card games and dice games. The fundamental difference according to Cardano being that dice games are open while card games are closed and hidden, therefore relying on ambush strategies.

Card games that required a good memory were considered even better as they required skill.

"In play with dice... everything depends entirely on pure chance, if the die is honest…But in cards, apart from the recognition of cards from the back [i.e., marked cards] there are a thousand other natural and worthy ways of recognizing them which are at the disposal of the prudent man…it is more fitting for the wise man to play at cards than at dice"

5.    The skill of luck: "There is something in this"

Any form of gambling encourages irrational behavior. Carrying lucky charms, stones and amulets to become luckier go against logic. But Cardano did notice that there had been times when he had experienced luck and that “there is something in this, although we do not know the law which connects the parts."

6.    Jerks at the Table: "Certain people are so contentious"

Cardano warns against distracting table talk and activities while at the table. Does the extract below remind you of anyone you’ve ever played against?

"There are some who with many words drive both themselves and others from their proper senses.... Certain people are so contentious that they provoke others to such anger that they forget everything."

Cardano recommends that you avoid such players as well as the players who are too quiet:

"that taciturnity which verges on utter silence is too hard and severe, since it is a greater pleasure to talk without playing than to play without talking."

While Cardano recommends against gambling, he often states that he understands man’s attraction to gambling and that this attraction is part of being human. He certainly seems to have a fascination with it.