Crossword-Solution: PUNTER 6 letters, 24 clues 🏆 scrabble score: 8

This witness stated that he was engaged, about five weeks before, to act as _punter_ or player (that is, in this case, a sham player or decoy) to a table called _Noir, rouge, tout le deux_ (evidently a name invented to evade the statute, if possible), by William Clarke, the prosecutor, before-mentioned; that the table was first carried to the back room of Donaldson's Library, where it continued for three or four days, when Donaldson discharged it from his premises.

The witness, however, returned to his employers that evening, when the firm advanced him L100, and Ford, another punter of the sort, L100, to back with the gentleman as a blind--so that when the signal was given to put upon black or red, they were to put their stakes--by which means the gentleman would follow; and they calculated upon fleecing him of five or six thousand pounds in the course of an hour.

The Couch, which was the first stake that every punter laid upon each card--every player having a book of 13 cards before him, upon which he must lay his money, more or less, according to his fancy.

When the couch was alpieued, parolied, to sept-et-le-va, quinze-et-le-va, trente-et-le-va, &c., the punter's gains were prodigious, miraculous; and if fortune befriended him so as to bring his stake to soissante-et-le-va, he was very likely to break the bank, by gaining a sum which no talliere could pay after such tremendous multiplication.

The cards might be dealt so as not to allow the punter any winning throughout the pack; and it was in the power of the dealer to let the punter have as many winnings as he thought convenient, and no more! It is said that Basset was invented by a noble Venetian, who was punished with exile for the contrivance.