Gambling, or GAMING, may be defined as the practice of playing for a money stake games depending solely on chance, like roulette, for instance, or those other games into which the element of skill enters, as in the cases of whist or billiards. Gambling was not countenanced by the Roman law; but a curious exception seems to have been made when, by the terms of the wager, the loser had to provide refreshment or hospitality for the winner. Before the passing of an enactment for the restriction of games and gaming, all games like cards and dice, and all exercises, were legal at common law so long as they were indulged in for recreation and played fairly and without cheating; and the reason assigned for the favour which gambling finds with the majority is not inaptly stated by a writer in the time of Queen Anne. He says: 'I cannot attribute it to a principle of mere avarice in many, though in most I fear it is so, but rather think the contingency of winning and losing and the expectations therefrom are diverting. I conceive there would be no pleasure properly so called if a man were sure to win always. It's the reconciling uncertainty to our desires that creates the satisfaction.' Among the old writers the subject of gaming appears to have taken a wide scope, and to have been mixed up with games which might more properly be ranked under the head of athletic exercises, as well as with what our ancestors were pleased to regard as sport; and the same classification appears to have taken place in some of the older statutes. Statutory restrictions upon games and gaming go back as far as the 12th year of the reign of Richard II., and these were followed by the 17th of Edward IV. and others which made certain games illegal; but in giving an outline of the chief statutes connected with gaming it is unnecessary to go further back than the year 1541, as the comprehensive Act 33 Henry VIII. chap. 9 prohibited tables, tennis, dice, cards, bowls, dash, loggats, and other unlawful games when played under certain conditions. This statute, however, like one of Edward III.'s proclamations, had for its immediate object the encouragement of archery, and professes to have become law in consequence of a petition being presented by the bowmen of this country and those engaged in the manufacture of implements of archery.
For some time there was no material alteration in the laws affecting gaming; but Charles II. desiring to prevent his subjects from becoming 'lewd and dissolute,' an act was passed (16 Car. II. chap. 7) to put down 'deceitful, disorderly, and excessive gaming.' The statute enacted that all persons winning by fraud over certain games and amusements therein specified were to forfeit treble the value of their winnings; that every one losing more than £100 on credit at the games before mentioned was to be discharged from the obligation to pay it; that all securities given for the debt were to be void; and that the winner was to forfeit treble the sum he won in excess of £100. This act of Charles II.'s is said to have been passed in consequence of the vast sums of money won and lost over a match on the turf in which two horses belonging to Mr Tregonwell Frampton and Sir Charles Strickland respectively were the competitors. Before the match came off Frampton's trainer meeting Hesletine, who had charge of Sir C. Strickland's horse, proposed to run a private trial, and at Sir Charles's directions Hesletine assented. Each jockey at the instigation of his master carried 7 lb. more than the specified weight under the idea that he had stolen a march on his opponent. Frampton's horse won the trial after a close race, and his party argued that as he won with the worst of the weights he would achieve an easy victory at even weights. The other side argued that, as their horse was beaten so little when handicapped with an extra 7 lb., he would turn the tables in the race, which, however, ended as the trial had done. So much money changed hands that, as already mentioned, the above act was passed. Passing over for the present the statutes aimed at unlawful games, it is sufficient to notice that by the first licensing act (25 Geo. II. chap. 36) gaming-houses are forbidden; but during the long reign of George III. the government does not appear to have troubled itself much about gaming and gamesters, and we may pass on to the 8 and 9 Vict. chap. 109, the 18th section of which renders void all contracts by way of gaming and wagering. The 16th and 17th Vict. put down betting-houses; and the 31st and 32d Vict. chap. 52 (the Vagrant Act) enacts that every person betting, wagering, or gaming in any open or public place with any table or instrument of gaming shall be deemed a rogue and vagabond, and, upon conviction, shall be punished as the act directs. It was under this act that the proprietors of the 'Pari-mutuel' were punished (see BETTING). In spite of the statutes forbidding gaming-houses they have been carried on, and during the year 1889, besides several other cases, the police made raids upon the Field Club, in Park Place, St James's, and another in Maiden Lane, Strand, the proprietors of which were fined £500 each, substantial penalties being also inflicted upon some of the officials.
It has been mentioned above that the statute of Henry VIII. made certain games illegal; and so long ago as the time of Edward IV. certain other games, like 'Holy Bowls,' were unlawful. In 1618, however, James I. made a declaration that the dancing of men and women, leaping, May games, and some other forms of amusement should be permitted, and Charles I. allowed feasts of dedications of churches, called wakes, to be indulged in; but the 18th Geo. II. chap. 34 put a stop to Roulette, or Roly-poly, a game which could have no connection with modern roulette, because the act speaks of Roulette 'or any other game with cards or dice.' It will be noticed that the statute passed in the time of Henry VIII. was not repealed at the time Queen Victoria came to the throne, and it was not until the year 1845 that bowls, quoits, tennis, and many other games of skill could legally be played in any public alley or ground. In 1845, however, it appears to have struck the ruling powers that it was a little incongruous to retain in the statute-book an act which both prohibited games of skill, and ordered people to shoot with bows and arrows, so in that year the 8th and 9th Vict. chap. 109 was passed, and a great deal of the act of Henry VIII. was repealed; and, to sum up, it may be pointed out that racing of all kinds, what are known as athletic sports, all games like cricket, croquet, quoits, &c., all of what are known as 'parlour pastimes,' and most games at cards are now legal. The exceptions are Ace of Hearts, Bassett, Dice (except Backgammon), Hazard, Pharaoh (or Faro), Passage, Roly-poly. It will be observed that neither playing cards for money nor betting are illegal per se; they only become so when indulged in under certain conditions. There is nothing unlawful in playing cards in a private house, or whilst in a club; but to frequent a gaming-house is not allowed. Again, a man does not break the law because he makes a bet on credit in his house, on a racecourse, or at Tattersall's if he is taken to be a member; but should he stake his money and make his bet at the bar of a public-house or on the street he renders himself liable to be proceeded against.
Lotteries, which are first heard of in England in 1569, were for some time legal, and at last so many private and cheating ones became mixed up with the more honourable affairs that legislation became necessary, and the 10th and 11th William III. chap. 17 was passed for the purpose of suppressing them by declaring them public nuisances; though there was still a loophole, for lotteries might be carried on 'under colour of patents or grants under the great seal.' This act, however, did little or nothing to check the evil, nor do subsequent enactments appear to have been more efficacious. State lotteries were altogether put an end to in 1826, from which year we hear very little of lotteries, as the laws against them are now strictly enforced. Raffles and sweeps are illegal, being nothing more than lotteries; yet every club has its Derby sweep; and when Convocation met in the summer of 1889, and denounced the tendency of all classes towards indulging in betting and gaming, one or two of the speakers spoke in extenuation of lotteries and raffles at fancy fairs organised for charitable or religious objects. Art unions are specially exempted from the operation of the statutes against lotteries by the 9th and 10th Vict. chap. 48, which declares that voluntary associations for acquiring works of art which are afterwards distributed by lot are to be deemed legal after a royal charter has been obtained. Gambling which takes the form of speculating in stocks and shares has long been common, but at present a certain number of outside brokers—men, that is to say, who are not members of the Stock Exchange—are offering every facility to those desirous of indulging in the hazardous pastime. By staking with the broker one per cent. of the amount it is determined to nominally expend, the investor can give his orders. Thus, in the words of the advertisements, £5 (called 'cover') commands £500 of stock. Should the stock fall sufficiently to exhaust the cover, the transaction is at an end; the investor loses his cover, which goes into the pocket of the broker. If the stock rises in the market the investor can claim the difference between its present value and the price at which he bought, or nominally bought, for no stock changes hands in these transactions. No brokerage is charged, and, as palatial offices are occupied, it would appear that a very great majority of speculators lose their money. This system when analysed is neither more nor less than betting upon the rise and fall, the broker being to all intents and purposes a bookmaker.
In the United States, keeping a gambling-house is indictable at common law as injurious to morals; and most states and territories have passed laws against gambling, in some of them severe and stringent. Yet till 1880 gambling was exceedingly common and open throughout the United States; and it was left to societies for the suppression of vice, especially in New York, to stir up the authorities to put the laws in force. In 1881-84 prosecutions and convictions were very numerous; in 1885 almost all the chief cities in the Union followed the example of New York. Prussia, Saxony, Brunswick, Mecklenburg-Schwerin, and Hamburg still have state lotteries.
See BETTING, MONACO, BADEN-BADEN, and articles on the various games; also Frederick Brandt, Games, Gaming, and Gamester's Law (new ed. 1873); an article in the Quarterly for January 1889; a bibliography of books on gambling in Notes and Queries (1889); and John Ashton's History of English Lotteries (1894).