shuffler, n.² — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

shuffler n.²

[their ability, lit. or fig., to ‘shuffle one’s deck’, i.e. either to perform as a card-sharp or to render the victim confused]

(US Und.) a confidence trickster.

[c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Shuffling fellow a slippery, shifting Fellow].
[1725		New Canting Dict. n.p.: shufler, or shuffling-fellow a slippery, shifting Fellow].
c.1831		‘New Song of the Election’ in C. Hindley Curiosities of Street Lit. (1871) 99: What rogues, fools, and shufflers, each other they call.
1847		Bristol Times 6 Mar. 2/2: If they had not retuned the money, the Directos [...] would liable to be called a set of shufflers’.
1850		E.V. Kenealy Goethe: a New Pantomime in Poetical Works 2 (1878) 336: Trickster, Shuffler, Lazar, Bow-leg, / Hast thou not yet had enough.
1895		J. Caminada Twenty-Five Years of Detective Life I 266: The shuffler smiles and smirks as before, and you depart without having obtained a glimpse of his coin.
1902		Western Times 17 Mar. 6/5: [headline] ‘Shufflers’ Card Sharping Practically Doomed.
1915		Dly Herald 29 May 4/1: [headline] The Double Shufflers [...] a deal between the crowd in office and the crowd out of office, whereby they can divide the spoils between them.
1979		‘Iceberg Slim’ Airtight Willie and Me 58: Streak had a fear that some shuffler would shim his pad.