Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1889-11-21
POKER IN THE HOME.
Several Objections that are Urged Against
the Game Social Feature.


san francisco Chronicle
1t is the generally received opinion
among the civilized nations of the world
that the practice of gambling is an evil,
not perhaps, because of any intrinsic or
inherent vice, but because of its pernicious
effects and its bad influence upon the NOR
ais of the community So far is this idea
general that there is and has been a great
mass of legislation against gambling,
nearly every country having statutes pro-
hiblting it in one form or another.
Perhaps it Is safe to say that the national
American game of chance is poker At all
events it is certain that the game has come
into favor to very great extent within the
past decade. and that many people play
poker nOw-that is. at home and for amuse-
ment-who, ten years ago, knew nothing
about the game and would be shocked at
the very mention of it. 1t has become
quite as common as euchre, and more
common than whist, at little social
gatherings and friendly parties, and it at
tracts no more attention to see party of
ladies and gentlemen playing poker than
it wosld to see them playing any other
game of cards.
And yet there are more objections to
be urged to poker as a social game than
to any other which has ever been popular
III the United States. In the first place
poker cannot be played without betting
something. 1t may be beans, or chips, or
pennies, or nicEles but there must be some
thing bet on the game or it is not poker
This in itself is fruitful source of danger
to very many. There are those who are
so constituted that there is danger to them
in any and every kind of speculation
They become so absorbed in the chance of
winning that they neglect everything else,
and for these people the game of poker,
whether the stakes be marbles or money,
it is injurious 1t is what they like. for
it supplies the excitement which they
crave but none the less it is harmful to
them.
Another objection to poker as a social
game although this is not an ethical OBJ
jection) is that it is in no sense game of
skill. The cards are not played; they are
simply laid down, and the strongest hand
wins. 1t Is no more game of skill than
twirling and teetotum or matching pennies.
When one talks about so-and-so being
good poker player, all he means is that he
Is a clever guesser as to ,.the comparative
strength of hands, or that he knows the
temperament of his adversaries and can
make shrewd conJectures as to what they
will do; but this Is not skill at cards. 1t
may be telegraphy or mind-reading or
good guessing. but It IS not skill in play
ing the game, for there Is no skill In it.
But the great. the vital objection to
poker in every way and under any circum-
stances is that the game is entirely too
progressive. 1t begins at home, in the
family circle, with beans for money, and
ends with forty-eight hours scanch, with
the contents of an employers safe as the
poker players capital Obviously this is
not stated as universal proposition, for
that would be palpable absurdity; but
it is asserted with all possible confidence
that there have bean hundreds, if not
thousands, of cases in the United States
where the defaulting or embezzling poker
player took his first lesson in the game
under the most innocent conditions pos
sible, and with no thought of harm to
come. Poker-players themselves admit
that there is a fascination about the game
which no other kind of gambling possesses;
and it is in this fascination that the danger
lies.
Whenever society has taken up an
amusement or pastime which is likely to