The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-02-09
Professional Gamblers and Gambling
Houses,

Professional Gamblers and Gambling
Houses.
a 0AsR was recently heard before one of the
aldermen Of this city, in which the complain
ant alleges that he was stripped Of several
thousand dollars at a gambling-house on
Chestnut street, during one evening, while he
was intoxicated. His losses are but type Of
many similar misfortunes which are con-
stantly occurring, although they are con-
oealed from the public through pride and
fear, and are finally discovered only through
the ruin of young men, the destitution of
families, or startling defalcations. The pro-
fessional gambler plies his nsfarious trade in
our midst as steadily and systematically as
If it were useful and honorable pursuit, and
ne serious effort is made to conceal from the
courts or the police the localities where ad-
venturous spirits are invited to eight the
tiger" II Mayor Fox should ask his detec-
tives for list of these establishments in
Philadelphia, they could soon perfect it, and
they could name, at a moments notice,
number of gambling dens whose we'll
dressed pimps are always in search of prey,
and whose sleek proprietors hold up their
heads as high as the honest men of the COM
munity. We have not yet initiated the New
York example of comforting high political
honors upon the keepers of our gambling
houses, but they enjoy here immunity from
punishment, and nothing is done to surround
their avooation with odium, if we except the
occasional raids which result sometimes in
arrests, but never in convictions of professional
gamblers. 1t has long been penal offense in
Pennsylvania to keep a gambling house, and
the penalty prescribed by the existing laws is
very severe. 1t may be that this severity is
q leading cause of the practical difficulty of
securing convictions, and of the rarity OF
vigorous prosecutions. Everybody knows
that the city contains number
of gambling houses and professional
gamblers, and this fact could be at
tested by clouds of living witnesses; but
somehow or other it is never satisfactorily
demonstrated to petit juries, and the occa-
sional indictments are usually ignored. The
old comm on law did not treat gaming, per Sc,
as an offense, but punished cheating at cards
or dice by fine and imprisonment. Gaming
houses, however, are considered nuisances in
nearly all civilized countries, on account of
their injurious effects on the public and their
tendency to promote cheating and other COR
rupt practices. The modern gambling house
Is always nuisance, and in many cases it is
under the charge of men who systematically
rob their dupes by false play. Among the
agencies which promote the growth of crime,
and especially forgery and robbery, it is one
of the most powerful. Young men who
under ordinary circumstances would shrink
with horror from the commission of
base or dishonorable act, can easily be enticed
into gaming house. Once there, 1t is not
difficult to lure them into play beyond their
means; and soon there is no alternative be-
wsen the disgrace and ruin resulting from
the discovery of a defalcation, and the com
mission of a desperate offsnse to provide the
means for Q temporary concealment of the
original crime. As the present laws provide
no efficient remedy against the evils of gam
bling, it is worth inquiring whether different
system of punishment would not be more
effective. The professional gamblers are, as
q GLASS, more dangerous and not whit
more honest than the professional pickpockets,
and wholesome results might flow from an
extended application of the system
which has proved eficscious with
the "Artful Dodgers" If the we'll
known professional gamblers, connected, as
pimps or proprietors, with the well-known
gambling houses of Philadelphia, were subject
to arrest and committaI to Moyamensing for
ninety days whenever they were seen in pub
Iio, or known by the police to be engaged in
their nefarious pursuit, they would probably
find the air of Philadelphia too unhealthy,
and speedily transport their bland cOunte-
nanoss and their implements of fraud to a
more genial cline.
Our Next President.