{{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<!--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 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 played it in 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 term for being sent to the disciplinary battalions in Algeria.<ref name="EB1911" />
==References== {{Reflist}}
Category:Gambling games