Definition

Noun: A confidence trick or gambling game, often performed as street entertainment, where a dealer shows three playing cards (typically two black cards and one red queen), then shuffles them face down and challenges spectators to bet money on correctly identifying the location of the red queen after the shuffle. The game is rigged, making it nearly impossible for the player to win.

Usage

The term is used to describe the specific deceptive game itself. It is often cited as an example of a scam or swindle. * The tourists were warned about street hustlers running three-card monte games in the square. * He lost fifty dollars in a game of three-card monte before realizing it was a trick.

Advanced Usage

• Metaphorical Use: The phrase "a game of three-card monte" can be used metaphorically to describe any complex, deceptive situation or scheme designed to confuse and defraud.
  • The company's accounting was like a game of three-card monte, hiding losses in a maze of shell corporations.

Variants and Related Words

• Find the Lady: A common alternative name for the same game in British English.
• The Three-card Trick: Another name for the game.
• Monte (Noun): Can be used as a shortened, informal form, though it may also refer to other gambling games.

Synonyms

• Con game
• Shell game (a similar deception using cups and a ball)
• Swindle
• Hustle

Related Phrases

• To run a monte game: To operate this specific scam.
  • The police arrested a man for running a monte game on the subway platform.

Related Idioms

• A three-card monte operation: Used to describe a business or scheme that is fundamentally dishonest and based on deception.
  • That investment firm turned out to be nothing but a three-card monte operation.

Noun

1. a gambling card game of Spanish origin; 3 or 4 cards are dealt face up and players bet that one of them will be matched before the others as the cards are dealt from the pack one at a time