What is "shell game"

n. 1 A game of skill which requires the bettor to guess under which of three small cups (or shells) a pea-sized object has been placed after the party operating the game rapidly rearranges them, providing opportunity for sleight of hand trickery. 2 Any confidence scheme, especially one involving the rapid movement of investment funds to a location beyond recovery.

n. a swindling sleight-of-hand game; victim guesses which of three things a pellet is under [syn: thimblerig]

The shell game (also known as Thimblerig, Three shells and a pea, the old army game) is portrayed as a gambling game, but in reality, when a wager for money is made, it is almost always a confidence trick used to perpetrate fraud. In confidence trick slang, this swindle is referred to as a short-con because it is quick and easy to pull off.

"Shell Game" is a science fiction short story by Philip K. Dick. "Shell Game" was submitted to the Scott Meredith Literary Agency and received by SMLA on December 12, 1953. First published in Galaxy Science Fiction Sept. 1954 "Shell Game" forms an interesting early examination of extreme paranoia and group attempts to empirically distinguish delusion from accurate perception of real events. A group of paranoid mental patients, long stranded on an alien planet by shipwreck of the robot controlled hospital spaceship transporting them to a mental hospital, believe themselves to be constantly under attack by aliens or Terrans. They discover the damaged ship in a bog, and from recorded tapes they learn their condition and the circumstances of the shipwreck. Even when they discover this evidence of the truth and attempt to verify or disprove the information on the ship's tapes, they construct sophisticated explanations to explain the "attacks" as a plot by the enemy who they now regard as definitely Terrans. After much internal dispute and sometimes violent conflict at the end of the story the survivors of the infighting are unsure if they are paranoid or victims of a plot. As one of them states they are like rulers who are all 12 or 13 inches long so have no basis for comparison. How would people determine whether they suffer from paranoia when they agree they have evidence all or none of them are paranoid is a central question of the story.

This story was later expanded in the novel Clans of the Alphane Moon.

A shell game is a confidence trick. Shell game may also refer to:

• The establishment and operation of multiple shell corporations to assist in the process of money laundering
• "Shell Game" (short story), a short story by Philip K. Dick
• Shell Game, a pricing game on The Price Is Right
• "Shell Game" (My Life as a Teenage Robot), an episode of My Life as a Teenage Robot.
• Shell Game (TV series), a short-lived 1987 CBS TV series starring Margot Kidder & James Read.
• Shell Game, a 1950 novel by Richard P. Powell
• The Shell Game, a 1980 TVB programme starring Simon Yam, Liza Wang, and Patrick Tse
• The Shell Game, a 2008 novel by Steve Alten

Shell Game is an American Comedy-drama television series that aired from January 8 until February 12, 1987.