Explain the difference between short-con games and long-con games, and give examples of each

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

A confidence game obtains money or property by a trick, device, or swindle that takes advantage of a victim's trust in the swindler. Two basic approaches are used in con games: the short con and the long con.

Short-con games take the victims for whatever money they have with them at the time of the action. For example, three-card monte, similar to the old shell game, entices victims to bet on whether they can select one card from among three. "Huge Duke" involves betting on a stacked poker hand, with the victim dealing the final hand. "The Wipe" involves tying money into a handkerchief for safekeeping and then switching it with one containing newspaper bits.

Long-con games are usually for higher stakes. For example, in "The Wire," the original long-con game, the victim is enticed to bet on horse races, convinced through an elaborate telegraph office setup that the manager can beat the bookmaker by delaying the results of the race long enough to let the victim and other cohorts in the scheme make bets. After allowing the victim to win a few games at low stakes, the "big bet" is made in which the victim may lose thousands of dollars.