Part 12

_Gambling in Clubs._—With regard to the law as to betting in clubs, allusion has already been made to _Downes_ v. _Johnson_ (2 Q.B. 1895) and a recent decision of Mr. Justice Bucknill which appears to follow upon the lines of that most unfortunate and harmful judgment. The alteration of the law needed here (none should be needed but for the interpretation put upon the words “person using” and “any other person” in section 30 of the Betting Act of 1853, as meaning persons in authority in the place, in the _Powell_ v. _Kempton Park_ case) is to so alter the section that the proprietors or committee of a club shall not escape responsibility for individuals, like the bookmakers in a race-course ring, carrying on betting businesses. Merely a clear definition of “persons using” as including such individuals is needed. This would bring all these betting establishments, some of which merely pretend to be social clubs, into the category of betting-houses, which are common gaming-houses; and if this were supplemented by a section as previously suggested, following the idea of the statutes of Anne and 18 George II., making the gain by any one member of a club of a greater sum than £10, on any game or chance whatever, upon any particular day, an offence entailing the same consequences, a heavy blow would be struck at gambling clubs of all kinds.

As to other gaming in clubs, chiefly card-playing, the reader who plods through the long technical judgment of Mr. Justice Hawkins in _Jenks_ v. _Turpin_ (13 Q.B.D.) will be chiefly impressed by the feeling that the police authorities systematically fail to make use of the existing laws, which is indeed the fact; but this is owing in great measure to difficulties in obtaining evidence, and the natural reluctance to order raids while the gamesters have the power to retaliate in case of failure. When elaborate preparations have been made at the cost of much labour, time, and expense, heavy bribery will often obtain the needful warning even from within the police force. The great clubs are seldom or never touched, and until a special department is formed at Scotland Yard under an able and determined chief, with absolute power of instant dismissal and punishment and liberal reward in dealing with his subordinates, our social life will continue to be poisoned with the evils of club gambling. If this were done and the old £10 limit named above once more revived, and greater power conferred to punish the players as well as the club committees and proprietors, club gambling would dwindle and the career of the professional gamester become less profitable and more precarious, while fortunes and incomes now thrown away would be applied to fruitful and honest purposes.

_Petty Gambling._—In the matter of petty gambling what is needed is not so much amendments of the law (the enormous demand for playing-cards seems, indeed, to make the reimposition of a tax advisable) as its assiduous application by the authorities. It is now so diffused, unhappily owing in great part to the habit the nation has fallen into of looking upon gambling as a venial vice, if vice at all, that their task may well seem endless; and in this connection the most effective legislative enactment, for petty gambling is very widespread amongst juveniles, might well be some considered scheme compulsorily providing for teaching the young in primary and secondary schools how wrong it is and what evils it leads to. The materials exist for enabling this to be done in a very incisive manner, and by the time such systematic lessons have permeated the rising generation their elders may become as ashamed of indulging in betting and gambling as they may now be said to be of drunkenness.

THE PRESS AND GAMBLING

It remains to say a few words about the press, which is largely responsible for the great evils of gambling, particularly of the professional betting system, under the plea of devotion to sport, which even the Duke of Devonshire seems to consider is being overdone, according to a recent speech made by him in public. The prohibition of the betting odds was strongly urged upon the Select Committee of the House of Lords. It would be a fatal blow to bookmaking, for nine bets out of ten are now made without agreement with the bookmakers as to the figures, but depending upon their subsequent publication as reported from the starting-post. The betting men put forward advocates before the Committee who pretended to think that such legislation would not reduce betting, but the best test is the frantic opposition which the bookmakers offer to the proposition. It is earnestly advocated by men like Mr. Le Blanc Smith of Oxford University and others interested in the purity of sport. The Committee say in their Report on Betting (Report and Evidence, No. 389, 1902; Evidence, No. 370, 1901; Index, 173 and 114, 1902): “There can be little doubt that the almost universal practice of publishing in newspapers what are known as ‘Starting-Price Odds’ greatly facilitates betting upon horse-races”; but, as they considered it to be in the nature of news, and a protection against fraud, they were not prepared to recommend the suggestion. It may be pointed out, however, that although no doubt the odds published are often correct, there is a regular system arranged between the bookmakers and the baser press organs for quoting unreal odds to lure on the public, which was exposed three years ago in an amusing controversy between two London newspapers. Moreover, the prevention of the swindling of some of the foolish public by bookmakers seems a poor reason for permitting the continuation of a practice which so materially assists in the demoralisation of hundreds of thousands of the populace. Considerable pains have been taken to ascertain privately the feeling of the better class of newspapers upon this subject, and it is found that they would welcome such a prohibition, provided it be made universal, as it will actually benefit all respectable journals. Their circulation is reduced by the public being led to spend their “press money” upon the so-called sporting or betting papers, the number of which is legion, many of them making great incomes of thousands per annum; besides which a considerable number of the less respectable newspapers issue during the racing seasons editions printed literally for nothing beyond the result of horse-races, and in the winter of football matches, the ordinary matter which has remained in type enabling them to escape from the meshes of the new bye-laws as to publications consisting wholly or chiefly of sporting—betting—information. Parliament will have to make up its mind some day to deal with this aspect of the betting question, and to say that the liberty of the press is not liberty to debauch the public and to share in the proceeds of doing so; that if Lord Beaconsfield was right, in his time, in stigmatising the Turf as a vast engine of national demoralisation, and if its powers for evil are now far greater than in his days, the press shall not continue to bolster up the system by publishing the odds, and sharing in its ill-gained profits through the medium of advertisements.

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, it may be said that when such time arrives the conviction will also be held by the people of the United Kingdom that the professional gambler in the stock and produce markets, whose operations it is not always possible to challenge as being entirely unconnected with commerce, should at least have his huge dealings hampered by a _pro rata_ tax, the incidence of which would not interfere with _bona fide_ purchases and sales; that our police forces must be saved from becoming as corrupt as Tammany Hall through bookmakers’ bribes, to which several of them are well on the way; that the great Department of the Post Office must not continue to swell its revenues by using its organisation to assist the corrupt business of betting, even granting it special facilities, whatever may be alleged to the contrary—in particular, with regard to the telegraphic service, in which overt temptations to the servants in its employ are continually resulting in its having to prosecute them in batches, notably the younger ones among them, in the name of public morality, but practically for the protection of this bookmaking system which the Post Office, as its intermediary for deposits, assists and fosters in its work of breeding criminals and cheating fools; and finally that those individuals who, without the vestige of any mercantile basis, prey upon the credulity and vices of their fellow-countrymen should be looked upon as _hostes humani generis_, so that the bookmakers shall be treated as criminals and punished, not by fines but by imprisonment.

Then, perhaps, also, the habitual private gambler of means and position will find every public career and honour withheld from him, and this great Christian nation will approach the plane of morality now occupied in this respect by our allied heathen empire of Japan.

THE REPRESSION OF GAMBLING

By B. SEEBOHM ROWNTREE

In seeking remedies for the acknowledged national evils of betting and gambling, it will be well to consider what are the causes that have probably chiefly contributed to the present deplorable state of things.

Amongst the wealthy or well-to-do there can be little doubt that (_a_) the thoughtless following of fashion, (_b_) the desire for excitement and a sense of “life,” and (_c_) the craving for gain without labour, are the main incentives to gambling practices. The same causes, though in differing degrees, and finding expression in somewhat differing forms, appear also to lie at the root of the matter amongst the artisan classes and the labouring poor.

So far as concerns the following of fashion, the unwillingness to hold out against the customs of one’s comrades, and to go against the stream, human nature is the same in rich and poor, and there is no remedy for this failing but improvement of the moral stamina of the individual.

With regard, however, to the desire for excitement and a certain fulness of life, there are causes operating which differ widely in the cases of the rich and the poor. The monotony of the rich is a monotony of surfeit. They have means to satisfy all their material needs, and the very fact that they need not strive after anything brings satiety into everything, and with it the craving for excitement. And excitement in abundance may be found in gambling. This has been well put by Dr. Robertson:—

What we want is life, “more life and fuller.” To escape from monotony, to get away from the life of mere routine and habits, to feel that we are alive—with more of surprise and wakefulness in our existence. To have less of the gelid, torpid, tortoise-like existence. “To feel the years before us.” To be consciously existing.

Now, this desire lies at the bottom of many forms of life which are apparently as diverse as possible. It constitutes the fascination of the gambler’s life; money is not what he wants—were he possessed of thousands to-day he would risk them all to-morrow—but it is that, being perpetually on the brink of enormous wealth and utter ruin, he is compelled to realise at every moment the possibility of extremes of life. Every moment is one of feeling.

In the case of the poor, on the other hand, monotony of life arises from the very absence of the external advantages of the wealthier. The young man, after a day of monotonous toil in some uninteresting occupation, has too often to come home to his small and overcrowded house in a dingy back street, where his only living room is one which must serve the purposes of kitchen, nursery, parlour, and dining-room, and where he can find no relief from the noisy children. His mental horizon is extremely limited, and he has hardly any intellectual interests. He cannot afford the forms of recreation that would be indulged in by his unintellectual brother among the richer classes of Society, and yet he has the same desire for “life.” He thinks to get it cheaply by betting.

Again, the desire of gain without work is common to all classes. With the well-to-do and the professional, it may take the reputable form of speculating in stocks and shares—a large proportion of a sharebroker’s business is notoriously for speculative clients; but the poor also may succumb to the temptation, though on a humbler scale. The writer heard recently of a woman who had her family to maintain, and who, with but one shilling in the world, staked it on a horse in the hope of mending matters.

If then the causes of gambling are so widespread, and are due to conditions all but universal in this country, can anything be done in the way of remedy?

Undoubtedly much may be done in the way of legislative and administrative steps, the right direction of which is indicated in the Report published by the House of Lords’ Commission.[11] It is important that we should urge upon Parliament the need for laws upon these lines.

But apart altogether from legislation—though at the same time tending to ripen public opinion for more stringent laws—a good deal may be achieved, and it is the object of this paper to make suggestions in this direction.

Unquestionably the first thing which those should do who are desirous of suppressing the gambling evil is absolutely to dissociate themselves from any form of it whatever, commercial or otherwise. Even those who play cards for insignificant stakes, or who place very small amounts upon horses—amounts so small that it is practically immaterial whether they win or lose—are nevertheless severely handicapping themselves in any effort they may make to check the gambling curse. They undo the influence which they might exert upon children, workmen, or employees, who notice that they indulge in gambling transactions, but do not notice, or at any rate soon forget, that these transactions are extremely small in amount. The influence of would-be reformers must be unreservedly opposed to the evil, even in those forms which are apparently harmless, for it is just these which are the first links in a chain which may eventually bind some weaker brother hand and foot.

The writer is aware that in urging the avoidance of gambling in commercial transactions he exposes himself to the objection that gambling and commerce are apparently inextricably associated. He does not, however, seek to maintain that any hard and fast line can be drawn, transactions on one side of which are to be described as of a speculative or gambling nature, and on the other as legitimate business. He is aware that in every business there must be some amount of speculation, just as there is every time that we decide whether we shall or shall not take an umbrella when we go for a walk. He is aware, too, that in business much depends upon the special circumstances of the case and the spirit in which the transaction is undertaken, but he would nevertheless urge the importance of reducing the speculative element in business to the lowest possible point, rather than the adoption of a policy which introduces needless uncertainty as to the future.

Having first taken care that our personal influence is cast unhesitatingly upon the right side, we should next seek to create _a sound Public Opinion_. There is great need for the spread of information regarding the extent of the evil, as the facts in connection with it are at present but little known. Generally speaking, the public have not yet realised that betting and gambling are wrong, or that the evil has spread until it has become a grave national danger. Even the Churches have not yet at all generally spoken out with regard to the question, and much may be done in stirring them up in the matter. Although almost every Church has some organised temperance society actively at work, how many Churches have undertaken any organised effort for the suppression of gambling? In how many cities of the British Islands does an anti-gambling society exist? Here at any rate direct work may at once be started towards the formation of enlightened public opinion. It is important that a branch of the National Anti-Gambling Society should be formed in every town, whether it be directly connected with the local Churches or otherwise. In one town with which the writer is familiar, a society of this kind was formed seven years ago. Its annual income, raised by subscriptions, only averages about £30, but, nevertheless, it has been able to do a large amount of steady work, which has undoubtedly resulted in the creation in the town of a much sounder public opinion with regard to this great question than existed previously. This society has prepared fly-leaves and pamphlets, and distributed them from house to house once or twice a year. It communicates with the clergy each year just before the spring and summer race meetings, and bespeaks reference in their sermons to the gambling then prevalent. It arranges to send speakers to address various meetings held in connection with churches and chapels; such, for instance, as P.S.A., Men’s Bible Classes, and special theatre services. It has also organised many public meetings on its own account, as, for example, during the week in which this article was written, when an open-air meeting was held on a Sunday afternoon, at which about 1000 persons were present. As might be anticipated, the experience of this society is that it is difficult to get to these meetings those who themselves indulge in betting and gambling on any extensive scale, but the committee feel that the meetings rouse interest in the question among the more thoughtful members of the community, who, in their turn, will personally influence other people, and probably at the present time this is a more fruitful line of service than attempting to make a direct appeal to gamblers.

We may derive encouragement in the slow work of leavening public opinion as to gambling from the memory of the revolution that has taken place in public opinion with regard to drunkenness. In the time of the later Georges, it was no disgrace for a statesman to be seen drunk in public. Now, even a workman would lose caste with his respectable companions if he were seen drunk. We must at any cost enlist this compelling power of Public Opinion. We want all classes to pass on confirmed gamblers the same judgment as they pass on confirmed drinkers. We want, too, a public opinion which will condemn commercial gambling just as much as betting upon horses or anything else, or playing cards for high stakes. There is, indeed, a healthy growth of religious opinion at the present time with regard to raffles at bazaars, but there is much need for further education even on this question. Some time ago the writer received a request to take part in an enormous raffle which was being organised on behalf of a religious institution in Ireland, the prizes in which included a cameo of Leo XIII. (specially presented by the Pope himself), and a motor-car valued at £300. Knowing that such transactions were entirely illegal, he communicated with the police at Dublin Castle, and asked whether they were intending to take action in connection with the matter. He was, however, informed that, since the object was religious, they did not intend doing so. He then requested a Member of Parliament to put a question in the House with regard to the matter, but he was informed that a question dealing with a similar case had been put two or three weeks before, and that the responsible Minister had replied that, although it was known that lotteries of this character were illegal, it was not the custom to interfere when they were for a religious purpose! Such an example indicates how inadequate is the appreciation on the part even of those in high positions of the seriousness of the gambling evil in this country, and of the necessity of taking all legitimate steps for its discouragement and suppression. Indeed, the same apathy and lack of intelligent interest is not infrequently to be found even amongst dignitaries of the Anglican Church. On one occasion the writer wrote to a clergyman of high station asking him to take the chair at an anti-gambling meeting to be held after church hours on a Sunday night. He received a reply to the effect that the clergyman in question could not come, believing as he did that the “Sabbath was made for edification and dedication, and not for demonstration and declamation”; and, further, that probably his views with regard to the question were not those of the Committee of the Anti-Gambling Society, as he considered that there was no harm in gambling unless a sum were staked greater than the gambler was prepared to pay if called upon to do so! Such an opinion is not isolated, even among comparatively thoughtful people.

It is quite likely that with most gamblers any attempt to convince them that gambling is wrong in itself will fail. Probably more impression is made, especially on beginners, by exposing the folly of the practice. In the case of boys leaving school and entering early manhood, who think it smart and manly to bet, we can show them that, so far from this being the case, betting with bookmakers is the hall-mark of an ignorant greenhorn. We can show them how the bookmaker is a parasite upon society, preying upon the ignorance of the foolish people who bet with him, and often living uncommonly well at their expense, as was the bookmaker arrested in Manchester, whose books showed that he had made £5846 in five months. The extent to which gross ignorance of all that it is important to know in estimating the chances of a horse passes for profound knowledge amongst betting men is astounding. The writer remembers travelling one day from Newcastle with a number of working men who were going to attend the races at Thirsk. They were evidently men who habitually betted and closely followed the betting news in the papers. To any one with the slightest knowledge of horses, their discussion, although accompanied by airs of profound wisdom, was in the highest degree amusing, the climax coming when one man, whose opinion was evidently greatly valued by the rest, gave as his reason for not backing a certain horse, “He wags his tail ower much for me.”

For telling ridicule of the gambling folly there is nothing better than Charles Kingsley’s _Letter to Young Men on Betting and Gambling_.[12] It is probably well known, but the writer cannot refrain from quoting one or two passages:—

“I hold, then, that betting is itself more or less wrong and immoral. But I hold, too, that betting, in three cases out of four, is altogether foolish; so foolish that I cannot understand why the very young men who are fondest of it should be the very men who are proudest of being considered shrewd, knowing men of the world, and what not.

“They stake their money on this horse and on that. Now, judging of a horse’s capabilities is an art, and a very delicate and difficult art, depending first on natural talent, and next on experience, such as not one man in a thousand has. But how many betting young men know anything about a horse, save that he has four legs? How many of them know at sight whether a horse is sound or not? whether he can stay or not? whether he is going in good form or not? whether he is doing his best or not? Probably five out of six of them could not sit on a race-horse without falling off; and then such a youth pretends to himself that he is a judge of the capabilities of a noble brute, who is a much better judge of the young gentleman’s capabilities, and would prove himself so within five minutes after he had got into the saddle.