The money card is another place where a dishonest scorekeeper can cheat. The money card is employed to keep track of the winnings and losing of each player in the game. If the players in the session do not examine the money card carefully at the end of each game, a dishonest scorekeeper can at any time put a winning score in a losing column or a losing score in a winning column.
While doing this, he can reverse his own two balances to balance it off. Trying to remember something that happened two or three hours before so that they can ascertain whether a game was entered correctly is an impossible task. If the money card is kept in pencil, a dishonest scorekeeper can go back at any time and reverse figures that were written in the two or three hours earlier. A player that does not check the money card at the end of each game would have no way of protecting himself against this, and one reversal of any figure on this card could cost him a great amount of money. Since the bottom columns will always balance, even when a score is reversed, there is absolutely no way to catch such alterations. To prevent the changing of figures, both the game score and the money card should always be kept in ink. Also, at the end of every game, when the dollars and cents scoring is then transferred to the money card, the card should be passed along to each player in the game for verification as to his own money score.
While not involving the scorekeeper, there is something else to remember. When playing at resort areas where gin rummy is played in bathing suits in front of a cabana as so often done for “fun”, a player may often lose a good amount of money. Since he does not have a wallet with him, he says he will see you in the locker room or at dinner. That is sometimes the last you will see of him. Also, where games are continued over several days, the amounts won and lost are kept on money cards carried by each player. For example, the game begins on Friday night and at the end of the session, the money that is won and lost is listed on the money card with the understanding that the players will keep adding and subtracting to these individual player’s totals after each session. They will then settle up on Sunday evening. The reasons given for this are usually to avoid having to carry large sums of money with you every day or to have to write numerous checks to cash. The major disadvantage in such an arrangement is that the person who has every intention of paying his normal losses can come up with what he considers to be an abnormal loss by totaling three day losses. This might create the temptation not to pay. In other words, a man who might lose $70.00 in a Friday night session would never hesitate to pay his losses, but if the next day he loses $90.00, which also is a reasonable amount to pay by itself, added to the $90.00 he might lose on a Sunday then adds up to $250.00 which might seem completely unreasonable for him. Not willing to part with this amount of cash, he may refuse to pay up or just skip out on you completely. The way to avoid this is to avoid weekend games, and plan on playing those types of games only with people you see on a regular basis, or pay up each evening before leaving the game.