biribi
{{Short description|Game of chance}}
File:Grille de biribi 1788.jpg
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.{{cite book|last=Dumas|first=Alexandre |title=Twenty Years After|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-cqBW2mNI6IC&pg=PA836|accessdate=23 May 2019|year=1998|publisher=Oxford University Press, UK|isbn=978-0-19-283843-8|pages=836–}} 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.{{EB1911|inline=1 |wstitle=Biribi |volume=3 |page=981}}
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".{{Cite web |title=Manuscript Biribi Game from the 18th century |url=https://steffenvoelkel.com/manuscript-biribi-game-2 |access-date=2024-07-17 |website=Antiquariat {{!}} Steffen Völkel GmbH |language=de-DE}}The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova (Volume 5) 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.{{Cite web |last=Lathan |first=Sharon |date=2016-07-11 |title=Cavagnole |url=https://sharonlathanauthor.com/cavagnole/ |access-date=2024-07-17 |website=Sharon Lathan, Novelist |language=en-US}}
In the French army, "to be sent to Biribi" was a cant term for being sent to the disciplinary battalions in Algeria.
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