GAMBLING IN LONDON.

Matamata Record, Volume XIII, Issue 1112, 7 April 1930, Page 6

GAMBLING IN LONDON.

NEW DENS OF VICE. . Gambling dens in the East End of London and the hold which gambling has obtained on Jews was deplored and denounced by Rabbi Dr Israel Mattuck lately. Eastward from Aldgate there are almost 200 gambling clubs, largely frequented by Jews, under the thin disguise of pool rooms and billiards halls. They are open all night, and small attempt is made to cover up their character, for anyone may enter and take part in the gambling. Welfare workers in the East End have received letters from distressed wives complaining that their husbands never return at night, but spend their time and money at these gaming dens. At one club in Aldgate hundreds of pounds are to be seen strewn on the tables at any time of the day. After 11 p.m. a large crowd, mainly of the race gang type, migrates from the West End. They play faro and pontoon, and also klobios and j other Jewish games. The fever has spread so much that even children are affected, and may be seen in the back streets of Whitechapel playing card games for forthings and halfpennies. Several small boys and girls were discovered engaged thus by a London Sunday Dispatch reporter. He nodded toward the yard where other children were playing j football, and asked if they did not < know a better game than the one J they were playing. “ Yes,” was the j chorused reply; “ poker I ” j “ This terrible vice," declared Mr | Mattuck, “ is entirely opposed to the Jewish religion. It is the resort of

the unintellectual, who crave for excitement to stimulate them, without their having to tax their brains. iA hundred years ago Jews did not gamble. They used their leisure for the study of Jewish law, for learning was hel din high esteem. To-day, however, many turn to gambling owing to the. stress under which they work.” One of the clubs in the East End i 3 run by, a greyhound-racing bookmaker, and many of his clients aptronise him in both his capacities.