CROOKED GAMBLING IN LONDON.

Dunstan Times, Issue 3128, 31 July 1922, Page 7

CROOKED GAMBLING IN LONDON.

Crooked gambling has assumed such proportions in London that visitors, particularly Americans, are being indexed by agents of the many gaming houses during their passage to- England, according to- the Evening News. This newspaper is conducting a. vigorous campaign for suppression -of the evil and its own investigators are visiting the houses and getting first-hand information. The paper warns visitors to beware of artful devices to entice them to places where they will be fleeced. It states that gaming houses, card-sharp-ers and confidence tricksters are operating in the most unexpected avenues of society, principally in order to trap the tourists who, they figure, must have money or they would not be travelling. The police admit that many complaints have been filed. The News says: “On every large Atlantic finer from America is a man collecting information about the passengers. He passes it to gaming-house principals and others who live on their wits. By watching and associating with the passengers in the first-class saloons they find those who play cards, and ascertain whether they play for high or small stakes, whether cautiously or recklessly, whether they can he induced to drink heavily, how much money they are usually nr cpa red to lose, where they are going in London, how long to stay, and whether hound on business or pleasure l . “The likely ones are noted as soon as they get to their hotels, and plans are made to get in touch with them through the smartly dressed touts who frequent the West End. Many of these, all of whom are paid high commissions, 'are well known to the police; others include people of good family, even people of title, whose lack of means leads them to turn to shady methods of raising money. “The most popular lure to get Americans is suggesting a place where one can get a drink all night, and to those who want to see the night life, that Jure is almost irresistible. Australians are the favorite victims, because they usually are good card players and fond of gambling. “Women of peculiar charm and fascination are also engaged in the task of decoying men to visit the gambling dens. There are a certain number of fashionable’, titled men and women moving in society who introduce visitors—usually tho rich war profiteers who are afflicted with social ambitions. It is no exaggeration to say that there are hundreds of social climbers who are quite willing and often delighted to he fleeced in the company of a titled person.” Tho places where games are staged are of two types. The first, a fixed place, which may be called a club, a private house or a flat. The second is the movable type. With the latter, a couple of persons hire two or three rooms in a mansion in Mayfair—there are many for rent—for a few days only, and then move on. Frequently suites in the West End hotels aro used. The West End is the most favored locality, because it disarms visitors. The cleverest sharpers—those most to be feared —play the society dodge, and often introduce accomplices, using the names of well known social lights, thereby putting the visitor off his his guard, and also ou his best behavior.