Chambers's Journal of Popular Literature, Science, and Art, fifth series, no. 121, vol. III, April 24, 1886

No. 121.—Vol. III.
Price 1½ d.
SATURDAY, APRIL 24, 1886.
Amongst the many social and legal anomalies for which England has long been celebrated throughout the civilised world, there are none more extraordinary than the rules and customs which have reference to all sorts of gambling and obtaining money by chance or by hazard. An example of this was given a short time ago in a French paper, in which a correspondent relates how he saw a constable take into custody three or four men who were quietly laying wagers amongst themselves and comparing notes on one of the great races. This happened a few yards from the Strand, under the colonnade of the Lyceum Theatre. Half an hour afterwards—so the writer states—he was passing the door of a large house close by where the above capture had been made, and saw the same constable keeping order amongst a number of cabs and vehicles waiting for their owners, whilst on the steps and at the door were a number of gentlemen talking and comparing notes. He asked the policeman what the place was, and whether any public meeting was going on. Considering what he had previously seen, he was more than a little surprised when the guardian of the law informed him that ‘This is the Victoria Club, the great betting club; and these gents are making up their books—the Two Thousand stakes will be run to-morrow.’ The writer goes on to say, that however excellent English law may be as a whole, it is evidently not the same for all classes of men, and that the social morals of the poor seem to be better looked after than those of the rich.
But if the anecdote here related astonished the foreigner, how much more amazed would he be at the rules and regulations, written and unwritten, of what may be called the art of making money by speculation, or gambling. All, or most of us, would regard with horror—supposing a similar thing were possible—the introduction of such an establishment as that of Monte Carlo into England, and yet we tolerate and even encourage that which creates far more wretchedness and ruins many more families than even the gaming-tables. Every day, in almost every paper we take up, we see the most plausible and seductive advertisements, persuading all sorts and conditions of men to apply for shares in this or that Joint-stock Company, with assurances—in which truth is at least economised—of a sure and certain fortune to be made in a few weeks. There are comparatively few of us who have the opportunities of knowing the enormous amount of harm done in this country by these continued and continual temptations, or who can estimate the misery that has been caused in our midst by them.