By B. Seebohm Rowntree

In seeking remedies for the acknowledged national evils of betting and gambling, it will be well to consider what are the causes that have probably chiefly contributed to the present deplorable state of things.

Amongst the wealthy or well-to-do there can be little doubt that (a) the thoughtless following of fashion, (b) the desire for excitement and a sense of “life,” and (c) the craving for gain without labour, are the main incentives to gambling practices. The same causes, though in differing degrees, and finding expression in somewhat differing forms, appear also to lie at the root of the matter amongst the artisan classes and the labouring poor.

So far as concerns the following of fashion, the unwillingness to hold out against the customs of one’s comrades, and to go against the stream, human nature is the same in rich and poor, and there is no remedy for this failing but improvement of the moral stamina of the individual.

With regard, however, to the desire for excitement and a certain fulness of life, there are causes operating which differ widely in the cases of the rich and the poor. The monotony of the rich is a monotony of surfeit. They have means to satisfy all their material needs, and the very fact that they need not strive after anything brings satiety into everything, and with it the craving for excitement. And excitement in abundance may be found in gambling. This has been well put by Dr. Robertson:—

In the case of the poor, on the other hand, monotony of life arises from the very absence of the external advantages of the wealthier. The young man, after a day of monotonous toil in some uninteresting occupation, has too often to come home to his small and overcrowded house in a dingy back street, where his only living room is one which must serve the purposes of kitchen, nursery, parlour, and dining-room, and where he can find no relief from the noisy children. His mental horizon is extremely limited, and he has hardly any intellectual interests. He cannot afford the forms of recreation that would be indulged in by his unintellectual brother among the richer classes of Society, and yet he has the same desire for “life.” He thinks to get it cheaply by betting.

Again, the desire of gain without work is common to all classes. With the well-to-do and the professional, it may take the reputable form of speculating in stocks and shares—a large proportion of a sharebroker’s business is notoriously for speculative clients; but the poor also may succumb to the temptation, though on a humbler scale. The writer heard recently of a woman who had her family to maintain, and who, with but one shilling in the world, staked it on a horse in the hope of mending matters.

If then the causes of gambling are so widespread, and are due to conditions all but universal in this country, can anything be done in the way of remedy?

Undoubtedly much may be done in the way of legislative and administrative steps, the right direction of which is indicated in the Report published by the House of Lords’ Commission.[11] It is important that we should urge upon Parliament the need for laws upon these lines.

But apart altogether from legislation—though at the same time tending to ripen public opinion for more stringent laws—a good deal may be achieved, and it is the object of this paper to make suggestions in this direction.

Unquestionably the first thing which those should do who are desirous of suppressing the gambling evil is absolutely to dissociate themselves from any form of it whatever, commercial or otherwise. Even those who play cards for insignificant stakes, or who place very small amounts upon horses—amounts so small that it is practically immaterial whether they win or lose—are nevertheless severely handicapping themselves in any effort they may make to check the gambling curse. They undo the influence which they might exert upon children, workmen, or employees, who notice that they indulge in gambling transactions, but do not notice, or at any rate soon forget, that these transactions are extremely small in amount. The influence of would-be reformers must be unreservedly opposed to the evil, even in those forms which are apparently harmless, for it is just these which are the first links in a chain which may eventually bind some weaker brother hand and foot.

The writer is aware that in urging the avoidance of gambling in commercial transactions he exposes himself to the objection that gambling and commerce are apparently inextricably associated. He does not, however, seek to maintain that any hard and fast line can be drawn, transactions on one side of which are to be described as of a speculative or gambling nature, and on the other as legitimate business. He is aware that in every business there must be some amount of speculation, just as there is every time that we decide whether we shall or shall not take an umbrella when we go for a walk. He is aware, too, that in business much depends upon the special circumstances of the case and the spirit in which the transaction is undertaken, but he would nevertheless urge the importance of reducing the speculative element in business to the lowest possible point, rather than the adoption of a policy which introduces needless uncertainty as to the future.

Having first taken care that our personal influence is cast unhesitatingly upon the right side, we should next seek to create a sound Public Opinion. There is great need for the spread of information regarding the extent of the evil, as the facts in connection with it are at present but little known. Generally speaking, the public have not yet realised that betting and gambling are wrong, or that the evil has spread until it has become a grave national danger. Even the Churches have not yet at all generally spoken out with regard to the question, and much may be done in stirring them up in the matter. Although almost every Church has some organised temperance society actively at work, how many Churches have undertaken any organised effort for the suppression of gambling? In how many cities of the British Islands does an anti-gambling society exist? Here at any rate direct work may at once be started towards the formation of enlightened public opinion. It is important that a branch of the National Anti-Gambling Society should be formed in every town, whether it be directly connected with the local Churches or otherwise. In one town with which the writer is familiar, a society of this kind was formed seven years ago. Its annual income, raised by subscriptions, only averages about £30, but, nevertheless, it has been able to do a large amount of steady work, which has undoubtedly resulted in the creation in the town of a much sounder public opinion with regard to this great question than existed previously. This society has prepared fly-leaves and pamphlets, and distributed them from house to house once or twice a year. It communicates with the clergy each year just before the spring and summer race meetings, and bespeaks reference in their sermons to the gambling then prevalent. It arranges to send speakers to address various meetings held in connection with churches and chapels; such, for instance, as P.S.A., Men’s Bible Classes, and special theatre services. It has also organised many public meetings on its own account, as, for example, during the week in which this article was written, when an open-air meeting was held on a Sunday afternoon, at which about 1000 persons were present. As might be anticipated, the experience of this society is that it is difficult to get to these meetings those who themselves indulge in betting and gambling on any extensive scale, but the committee feel that the meetings rouse interest in the question among the more thoughtful members of the community, who, in their turn, will personally influence other people, and probably at the present time this is a more fruitful line of service than attempting to make a direct appeal to gamblers.

We may derive encouragement in the slow work of leavening public opinion as to gambling from the memory of the revolution that has taken place in public opinion with regard to drunkenness. In the time of the later Georges, it was no disgrace for a statesman to be seen drunk in public. Now, even a workman would lose caste with his respectable companions if he were seen drunk. We must at any cost enlist this compelling power of Public Opinion. We want all classes to pass on confirmed gamblers the same judgment as they pass on confirmed drinkers. We want, too, a public opinion which will condemn commercial gambling just as much as betting upon horses or anything else, or playing cards for high stakes. There is, indeed, a healthy growth of religious opinion at the present time with regard to raffles at bazaars, but there is much need for further education even on this question. Some time ago the writer received a request to take part in an enormous raffle which was being organised on behalf of a religious institution in Ireland, the prizes in which included a cameo of Leo XIII. (specially presented by the Pope himself), and a motor-car valued at £300. Knowing that such transactions were entirely illegal, he communicated with the police at Dublin Castle, and asked whether they were intending to take action in connection with the matter. He was, however, informed that, since the object was religious, they did not intend doing so. He then requested a Member of Parliament to put a question in the House with regard to the matter, but he was informed that a question dealing with a similar case had been put two or three weeks before, and that the responsible Minister had replied that, although it was known that lotteries of this character were illegal, it was not the custom to interfere when they were for a religious purpose! Such an example indicates how inadequate is the appreciation on the part even of those in high positions of the seriousness of the gambling evil in this country, and of the necessity of taking all legitimate steps for its discouragement and suppression. Indeed, the same apathy and lack of intelligent interest is not infrequently to be found even amongst dignitaries of the Anglican Church. On one occasion the writer wrote to a clergyman of high station asking him to take the chair at an anti-gambling meeting to be held after church hours on a Sunday night. He received a reply to the effect that the clergyman in question could not come, believing as he did that the “Sabbath was made for edification and dedication, and not for demonstration and declamation”; and, further, that probably his views with regard to the question were not those of the Committee of the Anti-Gambling Society, as he considered that there was no harm in gambling unless a sum were staked greater than the gambler was prepared to pay if called upon to do so! Such an opinion is not isolated, even among comparatively thoughtful people.

It is quite likely that with most gamblers any attempt to convince them that gambling is wrong in itself will fail. Probably more impression is made, especially on beginners, by exposing the folly of the practice. In the case of boys leaving school and entering early manhood, who think it smart and manly to bet, we can show them that, so far from this being the case, betting with bookmakers is the hall-mark of an ignorant greenhorn. We can show them how the bookmaker is a parasite upon society, preying upon the ignorance of the foolish people who bet with him, and often living uncommonly well at their expense, as was the bookmaker arrested in Manchester, whose books showed that he had made £5846 in five months. The extent to which gross ignorance of all that it is important to know in estimating the chances of a horse passes for profound knowledge amongst betting men is astounding. The writer remembers travelling one day from Newcastle with a number of working men who were going to attend the races at Thirsk. They were evidently men who habitually betted and closely followed the betting news in the papers. To any one with the slightest knowledge of horses, their discussion, although accompanied by airs of profound wisdom, was in the highest degree amusing, the climax coming when one man, whose opinion was evidently greatly valued by the rest, gave as his reason for not backing a certain horse, “He wags his tail ower much for me.”

For telling ridicule of the gambling folly there is nothing better than Charles Kingsley’s Letter to Young Men on Betting and Gambling.[12] It is probably well known, but the writer cannot refrain from quoting one or two passages:—

“I hold, then, that betting is itself more or less wrong and immoral. But I hold, too, that betting, in three cases out of four, is altogether foolish; so foolish that I cannot understand why the very young men who are fondest of it should be the very men who are proudest of being considered shrewd, knowing men of the world, and what not.

“They stake their money on this horse and on that. Now, judging of a horse’s capabilities is an art, and a very delicate and difficult art, depending first on natural talent, and next on experience, such as not one man in a thousand has. But how many betting young men know anything about a horse, save that he has four legs? How many of them know at sight whether a horse is sound or not? whether he can stay or not? whether he is going in good form or not? whether he is doing his best or not? Probably five out of six of them could not sit on a race-horse without falling off; and then such a youth pretends to himself that he is a judge of the capabilities of a noble brute, who is a much better judge of the young gentleman’s capabilities, and would prove himself so within five minutes after he had got into the saddle.

“‘But they know what the horse has done already.’ Yes; but not what the horse might have done. They do not know—no one can, who is not in the secrets of the Turf—what the horse’s engagements really are; whether he has not been kept back in view of those engagements; whether he will not be kept back again; whether he has not been used to make play for another horse; and—in one word—whether he is meant to win.

“‘Ah, but the young gentleman has sent his money on commission to a prophet in the newspaper, in whom he has the highest confidence; he has prophesied the winner two or three times at least; and a friend of his sent him money to lay on, and got back ever so much; and he has a wonderful Greek name, Lynceus, or Polyphemus, or Typhlops, or something, and so he must know.’

“Ah! fool, fool! You know how often the great Polyphemus prophesied the winner, but you do not know how often he did not. Hits count of course; but misses are hushed up. And as for your friend getting money back, if Polyphemus let no one win, his trade would stop. The question is, not whether one foolish lad had won by him, but whether five-and-twenty foolish lads did not lose by him. He has his book to make, as well as you, and he wants your money to pay his own debts with if he loses. He has his bread to earn, and he wants your money to earn it with; and as for sending him money, you may as well throw a sovereign down a coal-pit and expect it to come up again with a ton of coals on its back.”