Mr. Justice Wills.—“When I first came upon the Bench I used to think drink was the most fruitful cause of crime, but it is now a question whether the unlimited facilities for illegitimate speculation on the part of people who have no means of embarking on it are not a more prevalent source of mischief and crime even than drink.”
Mr. Justice Hawkins.—“I know nothing more likely to ruin a young and inexperienced man than the system of betting which goes on around us.”
Mr. Justice Grantham.—“Gambling with bookmakers is the cause of more crime and misery than anything else in the land.”
Mr. Justice Darling.—“No one could attend the Civil and Criminal Courts without knowing that many persons spent a much larger amount of time in betting than they devoted to their own business.”
Mr. Horace Smith (London Stipendiary Magistrate).—“Nearly every case of embezzlement I try has resulted from betting, and then to pay their losses they rob their employers.”
Alderman Sutton (Newcastle Magistrate).—“The working men of the north of England put money on horses, and when they lose take their employers’ property.”
Chairman of Magistrates (Seacome Bank embezzlement case).—“The whole secret of the wrongdoing seems to be in the systematic agency employed all over the country to tempt men from the path of rectitude and virtue.”
Mr. Bros (London Stipendiary Magistrate).—“Betting is generally the downfall of clerks and servants who are charged with embezzlement.”
Coroner for Mid-Surrey.—“The poor lad, like many thousands of others, was led away by the fallacious idea that he was going to make money by backing horses. Men earning fifteen or twenty shillings a week cannot afford to lose sixpence in betting.”