From Whit Haydn's excellent Notes On Three-Card Monte:

"Canada Bill [the famous monte scammer] had to spend the night in Baton Rouge, and searched all over town until he finally found a Faro game in the back room of a barbershop. George Devol found him there and saw immediately that the dealer was cheating using a "two-card" (rigged) box. He begged Bill to quit the game. "Can't you see this game is crooked?" Devol asked. "Sure I know it, George," sighed Bill with resignation, "but it's the only game in town."

That story goes well with the first paragraph of "expert". Gotta admit the words passion, hazzard and play do a fine job of ... or is this about "perfect harmony with the usual procedure of the game"?

That definitely crossed my mind too, and a lot of the Monte men spent time in the Illinois railroad hub, but best I can tell, death dates and such don't check out.

As to meaning, I was thinking more along the lines of the definition of insanity quote.

I like Whit's tales of the irrational.
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Insanity is... hmmm...maybe a good title? "Tales of the Irrational"
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#WholeAboveWholeBelow ?