GAMING AND GAMBLING. f LET us distinguish between gaming and
gatnbling—betweenthe simple indulgence of an instinctive propensity and its abuse.
The taste for play is common to all men. Uncertainty, if not too long protracted—if not relating to an object or event of too overwhelming interest—is a pleasurable emotion, or at least one of those mixed emotions in which the pleasurable preponderates. This is the source of the delight men take in gaming : play or gaming is an artificial means of exciting this pleasurable emotion. The wager or the throw of the dice, which leaves all to chance, is its most simple form. Bowling or cricket, whist or backgammon, and horse-racing, in which chance has a part, but in which the exercise of bodily or intellectual skill or of the judgment is called into play, afford a higher degree of delight. That pleasure which is the re- sult of mere exertion and gratified vanity are combined with the "pavente speme." If kept within due bounds, there is nothing immoral in such gratification. As is the case with the moderate indulgence of any instinct or natural apetite, play is calculated to arouse and invigo- rate the mind. It is a spiritual and intellectual pleasure : it is free from the grossness of mere sensual indulgence. The human mind cannot without danger be kept always on the stretch of abstract speculation or business ; and, except in sleep, the human mind can never be idle. All have not the taste for music, painting, or poetry ; and the moment we come to active amusements, emulation is awakened, and we are already within the verge of play. Gaming, even in excess, cultivates the intellect. PASCAL all but discovered the differential calculus in the course of an inquiry prompted by the efforts of a gambling friend to discover an infallible method of calculating chances. LAW of Lauriston developed his theory of finance at the gaming-table ; and though the Mississippi scheme ruined multitudes, there were some practical problems of finance developed for the first time in that wild experiment, which have since been usefully applied. Gaming—or rather its excess, gambling—is hurtful when it be- comes an engrossing passion, indulged to the neglect of duties, or in contempt of moral restraints. Like all other pleasures, it is vicious only in or through its excess. The mere gambler, hide- pendently of the mischief he does, is a contemptible character ; but he rarely stops there. It i8 a wasteful amusement; his con- stant practice familiarizes him with every turn and chance of which advantage may be taken ; necessity and the pride of knowledge prompt him to avail himself of his superiority ; he becomes through habit callous to honourable feeling, and sinks into a sharper.
Here, as in most cases, it is impossible to mark the precise points
" Where mirth doth into folly glide, And folly into Bin."
But for the purposes of the legislator, who, like the tracer of a boundary between conterminous kingdoms, must draw a distinct line where he finds none in nature, it may be found practically sufficient to assume that the gamester for amusement is innocent, but that Want of room compels the omission of the Report on the Laws relative to Gaming, by a Committee of the House of Commons; which suggested the train tif *election embodied in this paper. -
the gambler—the gamester who makes a trade of it—is guittr Morally, the former may be as gnilty as the latter ; but his guilt is not of so tangible a nature, so susceptible of proof, as to cook within the power of a penal law. The professional gambler—in- dependently of the necessity by which his pursuits lead him directly or indirectly to take unfair advantages—is a mischievous member of society, inasmuch as he tempts those to play who have little if any natural turn that way, and those who have, to play in excess. He is the proeuress of gaming ; and his establishment ought to be put down as a nuisance, like the establishments of his prototypes. Beyond giving increased facilities to the suppression of gambling- establishments, and the detection and punishment of all who take an active part in their management or derive an income from them as proprietors or advancers of capital, it does not appear that legiss lation can do anything directly to repress gambling. The Legis- lature has properly ceased to act as pimp to the passion for gaming by establishing lotteries, and it will do wisely to allow no one to carry on the dishonest trade itself has relinquished. Clubs or pro- prietary establishments in which gaming is systematically carried on, may with advantage be coerced; and every tavern or alehouee- keeper who seeks to attract customers by Derby sweeps and ana- logous attractions may be fined and deprived of his licence. Indi- rectly, too, something may be done by the law courts refusing to take cognizance of litigations arising out of gaming transactions.
The rest must be left to education (in the widest acceptation of the word) purifying and strengthening the moral sense, and deve- loping oth-r tastes so as to multiply men's pleasurable pursuits. The loud and vehement outcry which is now raised against gambling is in itself evidence that much has been done to sin. prove social morality in this respect. That exprestion of public feeling has been occasioned not by the gambling spirit becoming more strong and licentious, but by the sense of the degrading tens dencies of its excess becoming keener. The time when denuncias tions of any vice become most vehement is precisely the time when it is about to be conquered : these denunciations prove that the national eyes are opened to its sinfulnestsand shame, and that it is now possible to put it down. The will to cast off the bad habit is there. The means consist in making man cease tes be the creature of one idea and one impulse. Among the Scottish peasantry, the vice of drunkenness has been spread and confirmed, to a greater extent than could otherwisehave been poasible, bythe narrow asceticism with which the fathers of their in many respects so estimable Church discouraged the spdrts of the peasantry. The roley-poleys and Derby sweeps and raffles of -England will best be counteracted by encouraging assentbiies of deespeople for athletic exercises and innocent sociality. Encourage the people to as- semble, not as mere spectators, but as the actors for their own amusement. Analogous amusements,, varied with others of a more refined and intellectual character, -will equally tend to diminish gambling among the wealthier classes. Everything that throws man back upon the mere element of indolent uncertainty as the source of pleasure in his " games," tends to gambling : everything that calls into play the healthful sense of pleasure in exertion, or the spirit of emulation, in combination with uncertainty, aids to raise him above mere gambling. Nor is publicity without its advantages : men will indulge tastes in solitude, or amid a few confidential associates, for which they would blush before strangers. It is a dangerous error that represents virtue as the child of seclusion : virtue, nay the negative merit of innocence, is nurtured by the awe in which men stand of each other—by the feeling that they may be conversing with some one holier than themselves.
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