wheel and deal

[James A. Landau]

I cannot recall ever having heard about people in the Wild West using roulette wheels (or dice, for that matter).  Just cards, and in particular poker and faro.  One can easily imagine someone on a covered wagon or stagecoach bringing a deck of cards, or several, but not something as fragile and space-consuming as a roulette wheel.

(Come to think of it, I have heard of the pea-in-the-shell game, but nutshells and peas or similar-sized pieces of gravel were widely available.)

Here's a guess:  "wheeling" is a maneuver performed by a horse and rider.  Could it be that "wheeling and dealing" meant that a rider who might be expected to ride off would instead keep turning around ("wheeling") to bargain some more?

    - Jim Landau

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