The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1899-04-11
WHAT Is GAMBLING?

disagree. The reason is, that me
words are used in both good and q
bad sense, and, more than that, there
not include some of the risks that are
the main features of gambling and
speculation. Every merchant, upon
one definition of speculation, is specu-
dator- He may go beyond what are
called reasonable limits in business,
and his brother merchants will call
him a gambler So it is in dealing
with stocks or with lands. What would
be called by intelligent, prudent men
a mere wild speculation, or a gamble
in stocks under one condition, would
be called a most conservative and
laudable enterprise under another con-
ditiOn. When a man with limited
means bought Hawaiian commercial,
several years ago, at the time it was
rugged" on the stock exchange, and
its affairs were secretly managed and
mismanaged, he would be called by
many a stock gambler; especially so
when he lost his money as many did
rate knowledge of the condition of that
company's property, backed with a
thorough experience in the manage
ment of sugar plantations, bought the
controlling interest in its stock, pru-
dent men would not call it a stock
gamble, but a brilliant and most COM
mendable business venture. But there
was and is a risk involved in the oper-
alton, of the kind connected with any
speculative operation, that is, more or
less ignorance of the future course of
events. A man who buys land ON the
prairie because he feels" that city
ought to spring UP at once on the spot,
is land Speculation, while anoth-
er man who buys the same land. on
a small margin, is not land specula-
tor, because he is the brother of the
president of a railway company, and
has certain knowledge that the track
will run through the land The man
who ventures his money on guesses,
and vague opinions of the future of
stock values, is merely a stock gamb- !
Ter, while the man who, through ac-
quaintance or otherwise, has a reason
able knowledge of underlying facts
which govern and will govern the mar
ket is not a stock gambler. 1t may |
be said here, that no man who ever
wrecked his fortune and his life in
speculations in good mines, patents,
lands, or stocks ever admitted that
h1 lott To
invariably and honestly believed that
he acted upon sufficient" information. |
So do the great majority of men who |
bet on horse racing, and at the faro |
bank
What then is the definition of camb- |
ing of money on the happening of GER |
tain events in the future, the happen |
ing of which events the common ex-
perience of mankind declares to be
more uncertain than the happening of
other events, which the common eX-
periences regard as probable and there
fore permit and justify a risk? Here
again, where the conditions are rela-
tive, the difficulty of making a defni-
tion appears.
He who invests his money upon the
risk of a sufficient fall of rain upon
the cane crop during the year 1899, is
not a gambler, but if he would risk his
money on fall of rain on the 4th of
July, 1899, he would be a gambler. In
the one case he has the knowledge of
a general experience, although the
rain may not fall during the entire
season. In the other case, there is
no general course Of events which
justifies him in taking the risk on
certain event happening at certain
day Gold mining. conducted in GER
tain we'll known ways is a legitimate
business. But when it is known that
hardly one man out of 5000 men who
spend their lives searching for gold
mines, finds valuable one, the bust
ness becomes a gamble or mere specu-
1ation.
The whole question is many sided.
AS a practical question it is difficult to
draw the line between gambling OF all
kinds and legitimate business, because,
as it has been shown, the element OF
risk exists in both cases. There was
the case, some years ago. In whlcn
a member of finn dealing IN iron,
got drunk one day and bought 2o'ooo
tons of steel rails. His partners called
him a wild gambler in rail futures
and prepared for bankruptcy. But
when prices went up end the result
of this drunken spree was a profit OF
100000 the firm revised their opinion,
and looked upon the partner as a man
of t.rare business sagacity"