E-text prepared by Turgut Dincer and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from page images generously made available by Internet Archive (https://archive.org) Note: Images of the original pages are available through Internet Archive. See https://archive.org/details/bettinggamblingn00rown BETTING AND GAMBLING [Illustration: Publisher's logo] BETTING & GAMBLING A National Evil Edited by B. SEEBOHM ROWNTREE Author of ‘Poverty’ London Macmillan and Co., Limited New York: The Macmillan Company 1905 All rights reserved TO THE MEMBERS OF THE COMMITTEE OF THE YORK ANTI-GAMBLING LEAGUE AT WHOSE SUGGESTION THIS WORK WAS UNDERTAKEN PREFACE Until comparatively recent years, betting and gambling were largely confined in this country to the wealthy few. Now, however, the practice has spread so widely among all classes of the community that those who know the facts name gambling and drinking as national evils of almost equal magnitude. There is no doubt that the social conscience is as yet only very partially awakened to the widespread character of the gambling evil and to its grievous consequences. Like a cancer, the evil thing has spread its poisonous roots throughout the length and breadth of the land, carrying with them, where they strike, misery, poverty, weakened character, and crime. Nor is the practice any longer spontaneous. It is encouraged and organised by an army of social parasites in the shape of bookmakers and their touts; these men or women (for the “profession” is not confined to men) pursue their calling in every town of Britain—indeed, there are probably but few villages or large workshops which are free from them. In many places, indeed, they regularly call for “orders,” the itinerant packman or agent combining this with his recognised business. Even little children have been known to bet their slate pencils in the playgrounds of our State schools, while women and girls in all ranks of society no longer regard the practice as unwomanly. And yet, in spite of the acknowledged magnitude of the evil, there are, with a very few notable exceptions, no organised efforts to check it. The apparent apathy of the nation to the extraordinary spread of this mischief in its midst is in sharp contrast to the great efforts organised to combat intemperance. For this there are probably three main causes:— 1. Ignorance on the part of the general public as to the rapid growth and the mischief of the practice. 2. Lack of clear thought regarding the ethics of the question. 3. The difficulty of suggesting practical steps to counteract so insidious an evil.