Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. one who lures an innocent player into a crooked gambling game.

c.1698

B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Faulkner c. see Tumbler, first part [i.e. ‘one that shows Tricks with and without a Hoop also one that Decoys, or draws others into Play’].

2. a juggler, a tumbler.

c.1698		see sense 1.
1725		New Canting Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: faulkner a tumbler, juggler, or shewer of tricks, (cant) perhaps because they lure the people, as a faulconer does his hawks.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1835		G. Kent Modern Flash Dict. n.p.: Faulkner, a juggler, tumbler.
1848		Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open.
c.1850		Duncombe New and Improved Flash Dict.