Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1884-04-02
WHY GAMBLING is NOT SUPPRESSED.

A vast deal of virtuous indignation has
been manifest, and very properly, in re-
cent months, against gambling, and steps
have been taken for both its suppression
and regulation-but which have been
practically Ineffective. Every effort to
purify the public atmosphere must receive
the encouragement of the self-respecting.
1t is truth that the public surroundings of
the young men of the age are largely ad.
verse to their moral purity.
But it behooves those who would "sup.
press" gambling, to begin right. The
gambling condemned by the law is of the
class known as banking games. If "hon-
estly" played-that is, without interven-
ton of cheating devices, they are the least
dangerous of all gambling schemes. In
fact, the head and front of the games,
known as faro" in fair dealing, makes
the "bet" dependent wholly upon the
purest chance of the turning of card
pulled from an "honest pack. Nothing
simpler can possibly be imagined than the
illustration of chances in this game. And
the same may be said of rouge ct noir,
roulette and similar games dependent
upon the merest chance of rolling ball
pausing in this or that spot, or the "next
card" coming up, red or black. In all these
games there falls to the banker, under
certain conditions, given percentage OF
all the bets made at the happening of the
event conditioned. 1t must be obvious to
every one that if given number of play
ers, neither increasing nor decreasing, play
at banking game sufficiently long, with
fixed capital not to be replenished, and the
bankers capital is equal to the demand of
such play, in the end he will, through the
medium of the percentage, win all the
capital of his adversaries But az none
play sufficiently long to demonstrate this
truth, and as players constantly change,
and fresh capital is constantly brought in,
so far as the banker is concerned it is TO
him a case precisely like that we have sug.
gested, Against the certainty of his win
ningin the end by the system of percent.
ages, and the chances of winning fairly the
whole bet of his opponent player, there is
the occasional rare circumstance of his own
capital being exhausted before that Of the
players opposed to him.
So much is necessary IS prelude. The
remaining consideration is simply one of
fraud, of marked cards, of downright dis
honesty, of false turns of the cards, of me-
chanical devices to direct the fall of the
roulette ball or the turn of the loaded dice.
Bat these are matters after all not peculiar
to gambling. Cheating enters into most
phases of business, and about all the trans.
actions OF men, So far as the present pur.
pose is concerned then. we have no occa-
sion to consider it at all. The law forbids
the doing of evil, and visits with pains and
penalties those who disregard its mandates.
1t canno. offer reward for those who refrain
from evil. What the law aims al, then,
in it's condemnation, is not cheat.
ing, but gambling per Sc. It is the danger,
allurement and destructive tendency OF
tickle chance against which the law is di.
rected. Fraud, then, is but an incidence
of gambling, as delirium tremens is Of
dram drinking,
We have, then, laws prohibiting gam
bling simply because the temptations of its
table are morally destructive and tend to
viciousness in the community. But the
law is not generally enforced, and in some
cases the crime is licensed as the best
means of limiting its evil.
For such an anamolous condition of Of.
fairs we naturally seek a cause. Nor dc
we need to engage in extended research t.
find it. Gambling, denounced by our laws,
is tolerated, countenanced and licensed be.
cause the moral sentiment of the communi.
ty does not fortify the law. The law is not
thus fortified because it is partial and I'm.
fair. and permits without rebuke gambling
more pernicious by far than that which il
condemns. The common declaration Of
men, lyon cannot suppress gambling, is
but an honest confession Of conscious
guilt but another form of saying "So
long as by cur laws we permit and encour.
age many phases Of gambling, it is unjust
to condemn and prohibit the few less OBJ.
jectionabls forms of gaming,
The situation, at least in California, is
typifed by that in Bunyan's allegory,