CTA Tattler

If you were on the Dan Ryan route of the Red Line, there's aren't any shell games but there is something of a market. People go from car to care selling anything from cigarettes to newspapers. Or at least they were the last time I rode the L. Also there would be people begging for change. Mainly homeless people and drug addicts.

I rode the L downtown on the Green Line once and the L vendor even found their way onto the less traveled Green Line.

I've seen it on the blue line a few times. I saw a high school kid lose 20 bucks once. These "shell shifters" do get suckers to play otherwise I guess they wouldn't do it.

That's very accurate Levois. There aren't any shell games on the Red Line. There are a group of guys that come through one by one selling "chews" (candy), "oils", "socks", "Sun-Times", etc. Then a few stops later, the homeless men march on through asking for money. That's about it.

I've seen them on the northside end of the Red Line, but yeah, never south of downtown. I saw them once on a Brown line train too.

I would say that these photos are evidence and should be forwarded to the police. Nothing good will happen unless we speak up.

Why are people so stupid to believe that they could ultimately win playing this game?

I agree, someone should forward these images to the Police or at least CTA.

I've seen them on the northern Red Line a couple of times. My husband managed to win $20 from the guy the one time he tried. The way I've seen it they let you win the first (couple of) times, then let you lose when the stakes get higher. So he only played one game, won, then got off at the next stop. They were not happy.

I told him he was lucky they didn't follow him and took the money back. When I've seen this scam before they usually don't let their marks get away with any cash.

I have to agree with the suggestion of passing this to the police though. It may be entertaining to riders who know this is a scam, but in the end they're still robbing people.

instead of saying "someone" should pass this on to the police, why doesnt someone just do it?

personally i could care less.

Why do people get so worked up over this? It's not "robbing" people. There are countless examples of enterprises that are considered perfectly legitimate that are predicated on "customers" being provided with an illusory value in exchange for some small amount of money. When some shell game crew starts grabbing people and forcing them to play against their will, then they will be robbing them.

As it is, it's a game that suckers play. Don't you think that if some of these dupes play, and get scammed, they will learn and cease being suckers in the future? If so, the shell game operators are actually performing a public service. (If you get scammed by a shell game more than once, well you're just stupid.)

Now if only they could figure out how to get people to stop being duped into voting for Daley. He's a REAL shell game operator...

I have seen the shell game on the Blue Line before - O'Hare branch. They target unsuspecting, wide-eyed tourist types who just flew in....or the suburban park-n-ride types.

damn those suburbanites! i tell ya... they're just all sooo stupid because they're not from the ciiittttttyyyyyyyy

While I agree these shell-game people aren't forcing people to play, calling it "legitimate" is QUITE a stretch.....it is only legit(and legal) if these 2 guys own a gaming license, and the State of Illinois isn't excatly handing those out.

As the CTA says, 'If asked for some dough, let someone know. DON'T BE JACK' on their weird signs. But it is still illegal to ask for money on CTA property.

I saw this on the North part of the Red Line last Friday afternoon. They were pretty persistent and kept trying to get a priest who was sitting across from me to play. But its the first time i've seen it in 4 years.

I really haven't seen it recently at all. The last time I saw it, it was on the redline about 5 years ago.

"Why do people get so worked up over this? It's not 'robbing' people."

When I was young and foolish, I was watching a shell game in New York where an obvious accomplice was pretending to lose to lure other people in. I commented to my friends that the guy was obviously working with the shell guy, and he turned around and told me that I'd get hurt if I didn't keep my mouth shut.

I see no problem with arresting these scammers.

THAT guy in the pics is the same guy who boarded the red line at Belmont SB one day and did the shell game. someone pressed the call button but he moved to my car. he was trying to get some victims around the train and a lady comes out from the 'bum seat' in the front of the train and says "its a scam its a scam!" the guy is like it aint no scam, the lady is like 'in the name of the lord it is a scam!' and the guy finally gets up, shows a giant wad of cash, exclaims well 'in god we trust' and gets off at Clark & Division... probably to get on another train. i'm glad this story was on here because i told people at work about this and they didn't believe me lol. but yeah this guy in the pics boarded at belmont recently.

I was on the orange line today at 11. They are loud, obnoxious, and when I told their mark that it was a scam they got mad at me. The idiot southwest employee (their mark) whipped out 80 bucks and lost it in a quick half-second, even after my warning. Ugh.

Gaming, especially as described, is not allowed on the CTA or on CTA property. The CTA is funded by the people and the counties have appointed persons to the CTA to set rules that reflect the popular sentiment of voters. If someone wants to try and make money playing a shell game they can try where it is permitted, but not on the L.

I was scammed by a shell game when i was a teen in san francisco. i lost 120 dollars. i was so nieve and stupid, and i was so furious for weeks after it happened. but looking back, i at least learned from the experience.