# Biribi

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{{Short description|Game of chance}}
thumb|Tableau for Biribi (1788)
thumb|Richly illustrated historical Biribi board from the 18th century

'''Biribi''', '''biribissi''' (in Italian), or '''cavagnole''' (in French), is an Italian game of chance similar to [keno](/source/keno)<!--The French article says roulette-->, played for low stakes. It is played on a board on which the numbers 1 to 70 are marked.<ref name="Dumas1998">{{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–}}</ref> The game has been banned in France since 1837.<ref name="sv"/>

The players put their stakes on the numbers they wish to back. The [banker](/source/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.<ref name=EB1911>{{EB1911|inline=1 |wstitle=Biribi |volume=3 |page=981}}</ref>

[Casanova](/source/Casanova) played it in [Genoa](/source/Genoa) (illegally, for it was already banned there) and the South of France in the 1760s,<ref name="sv">{{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}}</ref><ref>''The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova'' (Volume 5)</ref> and describes it as "a regular cheats' game".{{cn|date=February 2026}} 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.<ref>{{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}}</ref>

In the French army, "to be sent to Biribi" was a [cant](/source/cant_(language)) term for being sent to the [disciplinary battalions](/source/Battalion_of_Light_Infantry_of_Africa) in [Algeria](/source/Algeria).<ref name="EB1911" />

==References==
{{Reflist}}

Category:Gambling games

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Biribi](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biribi) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biribi?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.