Green’s Dictionary of Slang

strippers n.

also belly strippers, low belly strippers

(US gambling) playing cards of which the sides and/or ends have been slightly trimmed to help cheating; cit. 1949 seems to be a misunderstanding.

[US]Wkly Rake (NY) 24 Sept. n.p.: ‘Well, you can make something out of him, he’s green yet! Ain’t he, Jack?’ ‘Yes, I worked the strippers on him for fifty.’ ‘And I [...] wrung in two of three packs on him’.
[US]J.H. Green Arts and Miseries of Gambling 121: When cards are prepared [...] they are called strippers.
[US]Matsell Vocabulum 117: strippers Cards cut at the sides for the purpose of carrying on a skinning game.
[US]F. Francis Jr Saddle and Mocassin 228: A tender-foot got in amongst the gamblers [...] and what with ‘strippers,’ and ‘stocking,’ and ‘cold decks,’ and ‘bugs,’ and ‘reflectors,’ and ‘codes,’ and so forth, he hadn’t the ghost of a show.
[Aus]Mirror (Sydney) 31 Aug. 8/3: Poker players have their ‘strippers,’ where the sides of the cards are faked in such a way that the dealer knows what cards he is dealing to other players.
Morn. Call (Allentown, PA) 27 May 29/2: ‘Strippers’ are cards witjh the edges shaved that they may be read at a glance.
[US](con. 1820s+) H. Asbury Sucker’s Progress 13: [There were] a flood of prepared cards. Some were strippers, which meant that the sides and ends of certain cards in each suit had been trimmed [...] Strippers were cut in various ways, the most popular being hollows, rounds, rakes, wedges, and concave and convex.
[US]Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn) 228: stripper [...] extra wide cards in a deck which enable a dishonest gambler to strip out cards he needs.
[US]Goldin et al. DAUL 214/2: Strippers. A deck of cards in which all but the key-cards have been trimmed, for swindling.
[US]J. Scarne Complete Guide to Gambling 684: Low Belly Strippers – a crooked deck of cards [...] making it possible for the cheat to cut to a low or high card at will.
[US]A.E. Morgan Six-Eleven (1966) 136: Suppose you have all these gimmicks, the marked deck, the belly strippers.

In phrases

play strippers on (v.)

(US gambling) to cheat at cards by using a deck in which the sides of certain cards have been microscopically shaved or ‘stripped’.

[US]J. O’Connor Wanderings of a Vagabond 144: You’ve furgot, I reckon, when Pringle imported one o’ them ’ere fellers to Richmond, an’ how he played strippers on you,’mongst the rest on’em.