But Communist Newspaper Describes Him as Example of Social Evil : For a Sharp-Eyed Soviet Card Shark, Gambling Pays

This is the story of a Soviet card shark who has won as much in a single evening of high-stakes gambling as an average worker here earns in a lifetime.

It appeared recently in the Moscow Young Communist newspaper, presumably as part of Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev’s campaign to put a public spotlight on social evils and crack down on unearned income.

The picture of the Soviet gambling scene was reminiscent of Damon Runyon’s “Guys and Dolls” on Broadway or the film of the poker-playing “Cincinnati Kid.” There were characters with such nicknames as “Rat” and “Lard” and “the Georgian.”

“They represent symptoms of social ills, and we kept stony silence on these symptoms for too long,” the article said in starting a new series on anti-heroes in Soviet life.

The leading role was taken by Eduard (Edik) Kolosinsky, decribed as a sharp card player who never cheats but still wins enormous amounts of money from corrupt officials and black market speculators.

$150,000 in Winnings

On some evenings, the article said, he has won as much as 100,000 rubles (about $150,000 at the official rate of exchange), a fortune by Soviet standards. Soviet statistics indicate that a typical city worker earns 200 rubles a month, or 2,400 a year and less than 100,000 rubles in a 40-year career.

What’s more, the article says, gambling by itself is not illegal and laws against “parasitism” for those who hold no regular job are practically impossible to enforce. Keeping a gaming house, however, can be punished by prison terms.

Kolosinsky, now 24 years old, never did a day’s work in the last five years, the article said in a tone of stern disapproval.

“I can work but I don’t believe in work,” Edik was quoted as saying. “I have no intention to take up work because I firmly believe that menial work is not for me.”

But he is not without skills. The article said he has a phenomenal memory for cards and can detect the tiniest facial movements indicating whether an opponent is bluffing or holds a strong hand.

He shuffled his first deck as a 14-year-old schoolboy, playing for kopecks with classmates, then graduated to billiard rooms and recreation parks. By 17, he was traveling outside Moscow for high-stakes games.

“I never stole a single kopeck,” Edik boasted. “I never robbed, killed or maimed. I played honestly.”

He described some of his partners, however, as directors of food stores or factories who were stealing thousands of rubles from the state to gamble at cards. Others were currency speculators, black market operators and thieves.

“During one night he won 20,000, or 50,000 or 100,000 rubles,” the article said. “Not many people carry that much money, but all of the gamblers are solid people with almost unlimited money supply.”

Alluding to strong-arm methods for debt collection familiar in the American underworld, the article said there are ways to make losers pay up.

“If some of them develop a short memory, there are people who, for a percentage of the total owed, would refresh the memory instantly and very effectively,” the writer noted.

“Really, should we pity those who lose to Edik?” the article asks. “They want to skin him, too, to acquire unearned income.

“Edik doesn’t give a damn where the director of a food store would get the money, or what machinations a head waiter would do, or where the industrialist he skinned for 40,000 rubles last winter would steal the sum.”

The story said there are 200 or 300 professional card players like Edik in the Soviet Union who defy the Communist commandment to perform productive labor.

Edik, however, wasn’t always lucky enough to avoid the police. He was arrested with narcotics during a police raid on a gambling den and sentenced recently to three years in labor camp.

The writer of the article, however, said it would be a healthy life and, with good behavior, Kolosinsky would qualify for parole before long.

“And then back to an easy, comfortable life,” it said. “It gives one an opportunity to live well and laugh at the laws of the society he robs.”