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several parts. of t~e country r_ccently t~1ere
b:n•c been police ra1rl~ on gambling mncbrnt'I!,
some make• of whi~li have been completely
c_ learl'd out of ct•rt.11n towns. So onc-o more
the gambling evil has been ehcckl'd-locally.
llvw ridieulou' arc tlics~ sp:unna of 1cal ! The
<>nslaugh'..s arc loealis£'d, and, as ft result, what is
Ii crime in one town may be permissible in another.
t
• rist to the Mill.
More than a year ag11, following a 1rarning by
the police, Londcn was stripped of a ccrtaiu
rnachiut- tent is 11t1ll drall·ing \Ju3hcl11 of coppcr:;
from the public in Korth-Country .towns.
Similarly, while n gambling ma.chin& w:is bei~
>•}pprcsscd in one borough, tho corporation of
anotlier leasC'd a plot of land to a man for the
purpose of exploiting the same machine.
Agnin, there are -. few placNI, some of them at
the ~caside, whNc nobody can, at any time, work
" g-:imbling machine with impunity, while on
•·('rtain parts of our coast the worst of eakh-pcnny
dcvil'e~ arc not m&rely tolerated, but encournged,
bL·c:iu,;e they bring i.:rist to the mill. The reut
ham slot-mnchines forms uo small part of the
)Uhlic rc\•cnnc.
The law, t0.>, is partial. A few years ago a
£ hop keeper put up pl•uny packets o( caramel~ and
~timn!:it(d their s:ile by adding to some of the
p:ic~cts a t!JN.'<'Jl<'nuy-bit, a sixpeucl', or a shilling.
Llch packet contained n fair pennyworth of
nml he -diil not debauch the young by
I .sweets,
r.Jvertising his WJn·s. Yl't he was couvicted of
kccpiug a lottery.
I
t
> Tinkering wit!\ the
h 1 ·r: J er")''
.J_·_i:y~ll
Cl
Evil.
?\ow mark the contrast. In one locnl go\'l'l'll-
n:cHt iirca there were more than 500 gambling
rna<;hi11e3 of the worst type, nod for two years the
t•olicc took no actiou in connection with them, not-
\\ithstantlin~ that scorrs of complaints were made.
Another contrast is 11till ruore Ntriking. A mau,
~ho was com·icted of keeping ga·rubling machines,
• uu-;cd Eummonses to be issued under the Gaming
and Bcttiug Act against the mayor and corpora-
tion nnd 11 pier compa11y for allowing automatic
11:achincs to be used for such games as darts,
J,oopla, nnd coconut-shic3. 'fhc cases were com-
111it ted to tl1e assizes, wl1crc the indictments were
•1uaslu:d on the ground that a" corporation has no
· Lotly to.be kicked r.or soul to be saved.u
If thi11 rnrt of thing is not tinkering with tLe
cvil,.what is? That gambliug mochint'S in general
111 can evil, and n great evil, is indisputable. Some
of them arc so nttracti\'C that working them
hcc.:imcs a cra7.c to which, as was s 11cw11 ouly a
> liort time ago, even the police themselvc.. suc-
cumb. A certain machine was brought into court
autl, after a case relating to it hnd _been disposed
of, a numhcr of co11stable3 gathered ro1L1d it and
opcrntoo it fcveri,;.l1ly till it w:is empty.
·
Lost All Her Money,
Some terrible instances of how great a hold the
~rue mania gets on people in poor neighbourhoodd
J were giTcn at a meeting of tho Leeds and District
'Grocers' and Provision Dealers' Association. These
npply to a machine worked by checks, which are
bou.,.ht from the slwpkecpcr. If the player Ja
fort7in:ite, he gets back n number of checks, in
"xcha1wc for which goods can be obtained from
the cou;tcr. So the shopkeeper wins anyhow.
Ono afternoon, .according to a apenker ~t tlie
rueeting nt Leed~. n smnll boy was crying in
1cl1001. His tl'acher asked him what w:i.• the
matter, and he rcpliC'd that he had had no dinner
lll'can•o his mother had lost all her money in a
machine.
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:~not.~cr story told at Lc..:d5 is equally shocking.
Gorng into a shop, a woman remarked that 8he ha
only :ls., :rnd began operating a machine. Ilalf an
hour 11ufficed to "Lrt•ak" hl'r, \•hereupon she went
out.
PrcRently, howevrr, she returned with'
4'<. Od., \\'hich, she nill, she hnd r:iisNl at thcl
p.i'ln1broker's on her husband's Sund::iy ~uit.
..\gain she lost steadily till Ehc had only ls. 6
left.
.
"I'll have to l.;c<'Jl thi3 bit," she then saitl to
the shopkecJ,>l'r. "Wc'Te nothing to cat in the'
house."
Unfortunately, tl1c5e :ire not isolated incidents.
A woman i;hophl'p<'l' complaipcd at n Loudon
police court that her boy of sixteen ha
goods fro1n her place to the value of .£](), soldl
t~cm •. and lost all the money in g::1111Llingl
machines.
~
I
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I
An Unlucky Holiday.
Just as firm a hold rlid th<>Rc cout~iv:incr 5 get on~
a Londoner who went to the seaside for a fort-
night's holiday. Shortly aftel' his arrival he went
ton ba:taar, where J1e Jost £3. On the following 1
clny, gamhlcr-likc, ho !loped to retrieve his luck ;1
but he left bl-hind him a further !!.'.>s. The next'
morniug lie tried again, with wor'o results than
ever; aud the upshot was that he was obliged to~
cut his holiday short by eight rlays. !Ia
taken the precaution of getting a return ticket,
he would have had to ,..-:ilk home.
Whole c·ommunities :ire sometimes scize1l 'l'Cith
tlrn gambling- m:rnia. When, not Jong :igo, a
certain machine was at the height of its popu-
larity, there were n11mcrous \•illagca \rhl'rc
huntlrl'ds of people spent nearly the whole ofl
Sunday in vainly trying to wiu mon<'y by rucaus
of it.
Thi:i sort of thing uccessarily invol'l'es compara- 1
tively heavy lo,sc;. .An cxperi1ncnt with one I
machine showed that it would swallow ten
shillings in an haul' anil a quarter. This seems
"good going," but rrgular gamblers ~:iy that they
have often lost at the rate of kn .,hilliug, au honr
Skill D<>ellll't Count.
The rl'sults arc not .i1rnch, if at all, :ifl'ccll:tl by
skill. There have heen innumerable prosecution~
in rcsp<•ct of coin-freed machine~. antl as soon aa
one type has been ckclarl'd illegal another ha~
taken 'its place. Im·euton; ha,·e conscqucntly c:i;-
pcudcd a great deal of ingenuity in prodnciu"
machine~ uppareutly calling for bkill, anti thus
coming within the luw.
A certain well-1.:nown m:idiine, for i1uta11cc-, ha
a
seric~
of.
Urum~,
and in tinie the
positjuu~
iu
which these stopped wC'rc repeated. lfruce the'
position could Le calculated. But, ns an expert
tiaid, tho calculation was one that "a SL'uior
wrangler might do on a holidny."
Beside•, adding controls to a machine fosters thc
illusion tllat, with practice, the gambler can win.
.Actually, there is no more chance. of making
money by it than of "fiutliug the lady" or ~pottin!:(
the pea under tlic thimble. For the principk:i o
all gambling machin<-s necessarily cnotHe that in
the Jong run those who stoke> rnon•·y by thl'm sli:ill
losl', else why make and exploit ~uch rnachiucs?
In general, then, conhi\'::lllcc;; of this l.:iull for
extracting money from tho pocket< of the publi ·
are n great evil. and it i• o pity tl1at more "Y~
tRmatic efforts arc not made to suppre>s 1 l11•m
Thousands o( people cannot nfford to l°"e th
mone7 they foolishly put i11to them in the hope of
winning son1rthin:?.
Tho l:nv of g:imin~. ;iq it sta11
nbsurdities, but un< 1 rr it n good deal might L~
done by concerlC'd action to protc-ct the public.