PROFESSIONAL GAMBLERS IN ENGLAND.

Timaru Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 3287, 10 April 1885, Page 3

PROFESSIONAL GAMBLERS IN ENGLAND.

i Extensive Gajiblinq m Bbighton i Clubs. A correspondent, writing to the £(. » Janus] Gazette relative to an article on ' "Gambling" that appeared m the 1 journal named, says : " You say that it 1 is an open secret that a gang of card- [ sharpers have for several years been : plying their trade not only m gambling- ' houses but m cor tail) London ant] Brighton ' Clubs. You are evidently aware of what \ is going on and could have added, ' They . have varied this with trips to various [ watering-places after the London season r is over.' Some. of "the gang are mixed > up with actresses, who help to entangle ) ' flats.' But quite the prince of sharpers is i a man who has been at work for about ■ fifteen years, and is a past master m L the art. He is a member of lots of clubs, 1 and I have heard it computed that he 1 must have landed over £50,000 at the " least. He is assisted by a more or lees ' attractive wife, and it was chiefly through • falling m love with her that one poor 3 fellow, some five years ago, lost more ' than £5000 at ecarte at one sitting m his rooms at Brighton. The lucky winner of , this sum began with no income at all ; , and yet up to the time he married he ; lived at the rate of quite £3000 a year. , His wife has an income of a few hundreds, ; and he now manages to live quite en millionnaire. At Paris he is well known ; his wife's arrival and her 1 dresses are described m La Boulevard Gil Bias, and similar papers. He has made various paying trips to gambling places abroad, where, when he has picked up men who won at the tables, his wife woitld invite them m 'to supper and a smoke;' and then he and his confederates skinned them. This worthy is reputed to have added to his other accomplishments that of ' bonnet ' to a club. Next to him — and often working with him — is a man who some years ago was on service m one of the dependencies of the empire. Later on he was head-over-ears m debt, and now luxuriates m all good things of life, is a member of various social clubs, is very popular, and quite a representative masher. He calls himself by a fancy name, and has dropped his connections so entirely that I doubt if a single member of hia gang knows that he is married."