The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1906-08-12
ART OF GAMBLING
AS A PROFESSION
Biggest Players Sometimes
Land in Poor House
The QUALITIES DEMANDED
The Successful Gambler King Must be
Without Nerves Tactful and En-
bowed With a constitu-
ton of Iron.
The QUALITIES DEMANDED
lErom the chieago Trlhnne

| FROM the CnlcaSO 1r1bune.
Some one has advanced the statement
that every human being is a gambler at
heart. Yet for a man to go into the bus
mess of establishing card gambling
house under modern conditions is to at
tempt one of the riskiest businesses in the
world. Recently one Of the most noted
gaming house keepers in the country
seems to have suggested further an
omaly in the situation in his utteranee in
a court of record:
when l conduct house on 10 per
cent basis of profit it is only matter
of time until my steady patron goes
broke"
In the face of this statement. however,
the innocent layman may be still further
at sea when It is recalled by old habltues
of the gaming table that nearly every
gambling king of modern history has
finished close to the poor house and the
potter's field How is 1t possible that the
gambler with the insidious, certain 10 per
cent which inevitably wrecks the man
who goes often enough to the green table
almost invariably dies in poverty?
Today it is the gambler king who at
least has an ephemerai show to gain
1eetlng riches. But in order that these
riches shall approach riches as they are
measured In other businesses the man
who opens the gambling house must have
a fortune for the Investment His out
lawed business Itself will make 1t certain
that he pays the maximum rental or the
highest price for the property which he
| chooses for occupancy To sustain this
he will need to seek out the wealthy pat
ron who not only has money to lose, but
who may have a certain influence which
will tend toward immunity for keeper and
player alike. The establishment will
need to have the best cuisine and the
best cellars, with palatial furnishings and
a retlnue of servants in full keeping. And
somewhere money will be necessary in
binding officials to the existence of an
institution which is visible to the merest
tryo in passing along the street.
The Qualities Needed.
A constitution of iron. the absence of a
nervous system, the discrimination of a
King Solomon, and the tact of diplo-
mat are requisites for the successful gam
bier king. Considering the qualifications
of the man for such a place and the final
ending of the gambler kings career, it
might be a sociological study worth while
to determine where, on a more worthy
bent, such capacities in man might land
him.
In real life. however, It must be ad-
mitted that the gambling king is looked
upon in exaggerated light. Almost with
out exception the big gambler is posing al
ways. Conventionality has demanded 1t
of him. But far more than this in order
| kl,D F@Ilo viii he do
sires he must have a certain social side
which is not too prominent but which
with tact and judgment he may bring out
on dress parade. To the layman the gam
bier is the dark. sinister figure pictured in
melodrama. He bears the same relation
to gambling that Simon Legree bears to
the institution of slavery of 80 years ago.
One of the noted gambler of his time In
this country passed from laboring on the
docks into the prize ring. When his ring
work was ended the gambling house was
an easy step onward In ilegitimate fields
On the docks his reputation was. not above
a bit of strong arm" work in separating
man from the money which the dock
walloper wanted. Naturally. under the
Queensbury rules. there were things in
the ring which he could not do In over
coming an antagonist and he learned to
make concessions to fairness-which was
education.
Opening a gambling house that was
adapted to the wants of a rich clientele.
IT was a necessity that he preserve this
educated regard for his patrons and that
he should add to It. Soon he was in a
position where it was imperative that his
reputation for fair dealing be kept intact
He became the gentleman gambler
whose word" carried all the accepted
concomitants of his gentleman's business
In the course of events he attained high
legislative office under the government
But 1t may be said for those who knew
the man as a man not one ever ceased
to regard him at heart as the dock wal
loner. with the inherent and unrecon-
structed disposition to regard other men
as legitimate prey. Had other conditions
and circumstances made a card sharp of
him he would have held to the promptings
of his nature.
Play Must Go On.
In the conduct of a gambling house of
the first class, the gambler king needs for
himself and for his patrons the assurance
of uninterrupted play Men of money and
position will not go to house where
there is menace of police raid the
small gambler may subsidize the police
men on the beat in which his house stands,
but he cannot plaeate the whole ponce de-
nortment And even when 1t is thought
that the gambler king Is impregnable In
his castle some one may break over the
barriers and raid the place In the name
of law and order
within few years New York has given
TO the world some of the inside workings
NJ the gambling business When Jerome
raided the place of places which had been
considered immune. the proprietor OF the
house was considered worth $1.WO0O. Be