GAMBLING

New Zealand Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 6063, 22 November 1906, Page 4

GAMBLING

(By tho Bishop cf Durham )

[All Rights Reseuved.] ' What is gambling? It lias been defined as "i ho determination of the ownership of property b v an appeal to chance.” In other words, it is .an attempt to acquire what now belongs to someone else by arranging that the ownership shall be decided by some coining event over which it is understood that neither party can hare the least influence. Gambling is thus a. word' which covci's a wide variety of sorts and kinds. It includes the ‘•■pitoh and Boss’’ of a group of lads by the roadside; and the bet, large or small, upon a horse* in a race, or a team at football; and the play for money at the gaming-table, so far as “chance” rules the results; and the speculation which depends on money whose very existence hinges on the success of the venture —and a vast number of other transactions. These may differ endlessly in details. But if ilnoy full raider the description of settling ownership by an appeal to chance, they are gambling, all alike. It is undeniable that some elements in man are powciTully attracted by gambling. One instinct, which in itself is innocent enough, is powerfully touched by .this magnet; it is man's love of venture. X'anicularly where life as a rule is monotonous and weary (wo shall-say more of this later), there otten comes an almost irresistible craving for lliq change and excitement of sheer venture, the fillip of a “leap in the dark,” and the koon interest of waiting for the results. Then, ilhero is tho instinct of acquisition. This is innocent within the bounds drawn by sincere regard for the just interests of dehors, but it is dangerous the moment ■it forgets them, and it is wicked when it U-amples upon them—an instinct capable of tollable issues in callous cruelty. Then, there is the instinct of solf-sparing, taking tho form 1 of indolence, and so welcoming a mode of acquisition from others which involves no return of work or oven gratitude. The indolent man, wishing to possess, is only too likely to be drawn by the thought that by a bet, or by a stroke at play, ho may win what someone else now owns—and much more of it than ho would win by honest remunerative work—without one real effort, certainly without one effort which is of tho slightest use to the other party, or to the community. GAMBLING ON HEARSAY. With such appeals to human instincts no wonder l’ha/t gambling, practically as far back as detailed history goes, has found a place in human life. No wonder that in England in our time there should be a great deal of gambling. But the point which we are compelled to note to-day, is that within recent years, comparatively speaking, gambling has made enormous strides. • It is not too much to say that amply within living memory there has been a vast spread' of the gambling habit infecting every class of the community, lower as .well as higher, to a degree quite unknown, say, fifty years ago, and invading every form, or' very nearly every form, of popular and social amusement. There is also no doubt, in too many directions, a vast development of the habit where it existed before .in a less acute degree. If only half the current statements about the present extent of “bridge” playing for money are acurate, the gambling habit in many circles where “bridge” is popular must indeed have become a formidable social disease.

Gambling, in the special form'of betting upon racehorses is now a habit of a countless -multitude of people in many ranks. A century ago; it was, on tho whole, as to any prominent indulgence in it, confined to the well-tfa-do, almost to the really rich, and only to certain groups of these. The Newmarket races (begun some 250 years ago) were attended, a century and a quarter, ago, it is said, by only a few hundreds of people, aln«ott all gentry, and betiting was not carried on upon tho course. Now, step by step, in spite 1 of repeated efforts of the law, horse-races have become centres of an enormous system of betting, carried 1,11 (often under disgraceful conditions ,of even violent roguery) on the spot, but practised also (and this is far worse still), in remote country districts and in the densest and poorest populations of the towns. Telegraph and Office give fatal facilities (far too easily, .surely,, in view of snob a public evil) for; the transmission of racing news. The Press too often allows racing "propheciest,! 1 . which are, of course, professional invitations to bet, to be conspicuous in the daily paper. And all this is brought home with deadly closeness to the thoughts, wishes, hopes, oxciteraentsi of men, women, boys, girls, every win: re, by the work of the “book-makers” and their agents, whose gains depend upon the spread and spurring-on of tho betting habit. So vast is ‘this work of organised invitation to bet that it is calculated that tbs annual aggregate gains of bookmakers in England are not loss than £3, 000.000. That is, they surpass by quite two millions the whole annual sum given by all the Christian Churches of the country to carry on the Gospel of Christ into the notiChristian regions of the world. ■ A FASCINATING VICE. It would be easy enough to go into details on this formidable subject of the spread and deepening of the gambling habit. To quote no other source of detailed information, let! mo name the book edited by Air. B. S. Bowntree. of York CDOo). “Betting and Gambling a National Evil.” It is at once handy and full—full of facts sifted and verified, and drives home to every thinking man, by solid, woll-bnlancod statements of the “reason why,” tho mischief and misery of every form of the gambling habit.. One remarkable chapter is written by a successful book-maker, who confesses, near the close of active life, to the qualms of his own conscience as he loolct back. "The Deluded -Sportsman” is the title of the chapter; and tlra sermon is true to its text. The writer has not much pity for the wealthy betting man who oomes to min. But he is unhappy, ns he well may be, about' the countless men. worn on, and even children, who are encouraged to “put money on” "events” about which thpv can know literally nothing except through those whose open obioco is to get an income for themselves through and stimulating bets. Ho gives at some length, from bis long experience and that of others, twenty-two “reasons,” which all concur to securing the book-maker’s

gain at the cost- of the loss of the ‘‘small'’ gambler. He exposes mercilessly the abominable dishonesty which takes care that such and such a race is ‘Arranged” beforehand, wi’ch a view to tho money intcrostofthe arrangers; whoso horses shall win and which shall lose, is a mere matter of secret business in such cases. .He sums up with the words that, in his ‘'candid opinion” ‘ho dting is a pernicious* and fascinating vice of the worst kind, and is intimately connected with, if not the direct cause of, the worst kinds of various sins.” AN INSIDIOUS EVIL.

That last remark is suggestive. I boo here one answer to an old puzzle of mine, namely, why is this fatal element of betting, with roguery so often at its back, horse-races should have so had a name as occasions of evil. That they have ait evil repute is only too certain. A friend of mine, a member of an old family resident at Newmarket, once mentioned tho fact that whereas, between race-times, Newmarket was one of the quietest towns in England, at race-times residents in the High street lived exclusively at tho .hack of their houses; the front rooms simply could not be used. , As long ago as IS3O my father, then a young Dorset | dro Vicar, called upon the great lady (a near younger relative of William Pitt) of tho' little country town of which Ids parish was a suburb. Me went to make a courteous but strong protest against her annual patronage of the local races. She replied, “I am astonished, Mr Moule; I go, of course, with all my household and rny guests, to support a noble old English sport.” “Madam,” my father answered, “may I tell you orre fact from my own knowledge P Aa sure as every race-week arrives forty unhappy women take lodgings in rny parish, ready for their trade of sin.” The reply was decisive, “Do you say so? Is this a fact? Then never will I g 6 near the races again.” And she did not; and, somehow, there were no races at all tho next year, nor have they been revived. Would to God' that tiro action of that high-minded woman could find more imitators to-day. I say this irr no merely fanatical of “impossible” spirit. But I think there is cause for speaking out, to judge only by the accounts which even sporting papers indignantly give (Mr Eowntree’s book quotes many of them) of' the elements of disgraceful evil to- be observed even at first-class race-meetings. Ido not hesitate to say, from a heart profoundly loyal, and which continually thanks God for the wise and mighty influence of orrr gracious King for public and international good, that he would confer on us yet one more invaluable benefit if his patronage of racing were lesf» considerable. THE EFFECT ON CKARACTEE. But horse-racing is but a part of the broad confluent of life covered by the gambling habit. The “appeal to chance in order to determine possession” is everywhere, and touches everything. On ocean voyages it is a constant practice for passengers to couSributo to a “sweep” on the ship’s daily course, and on the date of its arrival. Strange stories are not uncommon of guests at wealthy houses who find that, if ithey do; not play for money, they have overstayed their welcome. In the ranks of business life, and I refer now particularly to such workers as bank-clerks, cases of conviction for embezzlement, with all rho attendant woo for the victim and his frieiids arc only too frequent, and responsible magistrates. unite to assure us that these ruins, in the vast majority of cases, are due to gambling. Money has been risked, and lost—and the money of the bank lies temptingly at hand, to bo used for the moment, and soon, of course, to .bo replaced! Alas, that money also vanishes, and detection comes, with its tremendous lesson. i

I cannot help the remark that a needless and wrongful temptation to such .wretched an'd guiltfy mistakes is often laid in a young man’s way by giving him a really inadequate salary, inadequate in view of his responsibilities. But that wrong does , not make his wrong right. And what shall we say of Sie results of the gambling habit upon character. They go deep to the basis of will, conscience and affection. . The gambling mania is in its essence selfish. Its power on the "inner man is selfish altogether; in proportion to its strength, the very idea of living for others must wither like the uprooted flower. It is in its essence the absolute 'contradiction to every high ideal. .. The unhappy victim, as it grows in him and on him, less and less cares for high questions, political or social, arid least of all for religious life and effort. He carries ■ within him a force always acing against the sublime law of rights eousness, with its eternal call to every man to think with equal reverence of his own dut'ies and of his neighbour’s rights. He is, just so far as he is a gambler, an alien from the blessed idea of home. “What is there in the pure unselfish affections-of home to compete (in' such a mind) wiifli tlic dark magnetism of chance, with j tho growing passion, more or less selfish, for the basest forms of gain ? So the whole character is shaken from its oehtire, and decay eetfe in, when the betting microbe getsfinto its veins. WORSE THAN BRINK. Briefly, in closing, let a word, be said about the remedies which may, God helping, touch this tremendous evil—an evil so clinging that workers among the young tell us that it is much easier to get lads to f take a pledge noS to drink or not to smoke than not to bet. Assuredly one farreaching remedy will come , with every wise and solid advance in the brightening and sweetening of the monoUonous conditions of life for the myriads of people to whom too often the bet , seems, alas, the only excitement, besides the drink, which ' helps time along. But all finally efficient moral remedies must come,from within, under blessing from above. From numberless wealthy lives the very thought of gambling “pleasures” is shut out by willing devotion to some noble career, social and Christian. From numberless poor and toiling lives (I know some of them) it is kept utterly away by unselfish care for a neighbour’s troubles and self-sacrificing efforts, ,in the small spare time to do Christiak, good —good of which the world, and the world to come, shall both reap the ■fruits. Any pure connected with other people helps to keep the bane away. And wherever, among rich or poor the blessed light of a godly homo is kept burning, (and such homes exist, more of them than we think, often where we least expect it), there the deadly and delusive mr-nia of the gambling habit cannot be; it dies of truth and love.