gum game, n. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

gum game n.

[the activity of the opossum, which, in its efforts to elude the hunter, climbs to the very top of a gum tree, thus taking itself beyond the hunter’s reach and, since it was hunted at night, beyond his eyesight]

(US) a trick or dodge.

1840		implied in come the gum (game) over
1848		Boston Blade 10 June n.p.: Rather difficult, Bill, to understand all the gum games that are carried on.
1859		Bartlett Americanisms.
1869		O. Logan Apropos of Women & Theatres 40: That horribly iniquitous proceeding, the ‘gum game,’ [...] the hideous nightmare in the shape of illegal voters coming forward en masse and ‘squelching‘ your favorite candidate.
1872		R.W. Maclpine Life & Times of Col. Fisk 185: From the beginning I saw that Vanderbilt would try the gum game.
1878		H.O. Flipper Colored Cadet at West Point 55: ‘Gum game.’ — A joke.
1885		Lisbon Star 18 Sept. n.p.: They tried the gum-game on me down in Pennsylvania [...] but I came out ahead [DA].
1893		Current Opinion 14 251/2: ‘Vhas I tooken for greenhorns und hayseeds by dose men?’ ‘Exactly. It was a sort of a gum game. It’s a wonder somebody doesn’t beat you out of your shirt.’.
1910		B.L. Bowen ‘Word-List From Western New York’ in DN III:vi 442: gum-game, n. A trick; a scheme to deceive. ‘You can’t work a gum-game on me.’.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).
1977		R. Coover Public Burning (1979) 110: Moonshine! Chicanery! The ole gum game!

In phrases

come the gum (game) over (v.)

(US) to hoodwink, to trick.

1840		H.J. Conway Battle of Stillwater [play script] in AS XVI (1941) 299: I’ve come the gum game over you.
1848		J. Mitchell Nantucketisms 40: ‘He tried to cum the gum over him, but, By Golla! Lijah was up & dressed.’ Ready—not to be taken in [DA].
1859		Bartlett Dict. Americanisms (2nd edn) 185: Opossums and raccoons, when pursued, will fly for refuge to the Sweet Gum tree, in preference to any other. [...] This is called ‘coming the gum game’ over the hunter.
1869		Kansas City Advertiser 7 May n.p.: You can’t come that gum game over me any more; I’ve been to the land-office and know all about the place.
1872		Schele De Vere Americanisms 209: This is what the Western man calls coming the gum-game, and he applies the phrase [...] to any case in daily life in which he thinks he sees a desire to overreach him by concealment.