GAMBLING, or GAMING, the art or practice of playing a game of hazard, or one depending partly on skill and partly on hazard, with a view, more or less exclusive, to a pecuniary gain. Games of this nature were forbidden by the Romans both under the republic and the empire (Cie. Philip. it. 23; Dig.. ix. tit. 5; Cod. iii. tit. 43). The ground on which this was done was the tendency of such practices, not to demoralizo the populace, but to render them effeminate and unmanly. Horace (Cam. iii. 24) com plains that youths of condition, instead of riding and hunting, had betaken themselves to illegal games of chance. It belonged to the willies to attend to the public interest by punishing violations of the gaming laws. During the saturnalia, which was a period of general license, these games were permitted (Martial, iv. 14), and a like indulgence at other seasons was extended to old men both amongst the Greeks and Romans (Eurip. Med. 67; Jay. xiv. 4). Nor has this vice been confined to civilized nations, either in, the ancient or the modern world; Tacitus (De Mon GOP. c. 2) mentions its existence amongst out own barbarian forefathers, and it is known to prevail amongst many half civilized and even savage tribes at the present day. In general, it is resorted to as a refuge against the depressMg sensations of languor and vacancy, which the want of active exertion, canna in the minds of those who bave inner life the classes most addicted to it in all countries are the idle, and mere men of business in their idle hours.
It is remarkable that in England, as in Rome, the ground on which gambling was first prohibited was, not its demoralizing, but its effeminating influences on the com munity. The act 33 Henry VIII. c. 9 (1541) had in view the double object of " main taining artillery and debarring unlawful games." By "artillery" appeared to be meant archery; and the act, reciting two others iii the same reign, contained the preamble, that the skill of the people in this martial art " is sore decayed, and daily is like to be more and more miuished." The cause of ffiis degeneracy was stated to have been the practice among the people of "many and sundry new and crafty games," which not only diverted popular attention from the more manly and patriotic art of shooting with the bow, but gave rise to murders, robberies, and other felonies. The act then con tained anxious provisions for the revival of the art of shooting with yew bows, and other particulars not now requiring notice, as that part of the statute has•heen l'epealed. On that act followed 16 Charles II. c. 7, and 9 Anne, c. 14, the latter of which declared that all bonds, or other securities given for money won at play, or money lent at the time to play with, should be utterly void, and all mortgages or incumbrances of lands made on the same consideration, should be made over to the use of the mortgager. This statute applied to Scotland, where the nullity was found to affect any one bolding a bond or bill as trustee for the winner, but not onerous or lona pie indorsers, without notice of the objection (Bell's Cont. i. p. 28, Shaw's edition). Such continued to be the statute law till 1845, when there was passed the act 8 and 9 Vict. c. 109, which, though it repealed the obsolete provisions of 33 Henry VIII. and 16 Charles II. e. 7, and 9 Anne, c. 14, re-enacted the former prohibitions against card-playing and other games, and was followed up (in 1833 and 1854) by the acts for suppressing betting-houses, 16 and 17 Vict. c. 119, and gaming-houses, 17 and 18 Vict. c. 38. By 8 and 9 Vict. c..109, the common law of England was altered, and wagers, which, with scme exceptions, had hitherto been considered legal contracts, were declared to be no longer exigible in a court of law. This prohibition does not affect contributing to prizes for lawful games.
In Scotland, an opposite rule had been followed, the judges having held, irrespective of the character of the game, or of any statutory wohibition regarding it, that " their proper functions were to enforce the rights of parties arising out of serious transactions, and not to pay regard to sponsiones Indictee." The partial assimilation which has now been effected in this respect between the laws of the two countries is one the desirable ness of which had been pointed out by many eminent English judges, from the time of lord Mansfield down to the passing of the act, and which was at last adopted in accord ance with the report of a select. committee of the house of commons in 1844. By this statute, it is also provided that cheating at play shall be punished as obtaining money under false pretenses. It also facilitates proceedings against common gaming-houses, by enacting that where other evidence is awanting, it shall be sufficient to prove that the house or other place is kept or used for playing at any unlawful game, and that a bank is there kept by one or more of the players exclusively of the other; or that the chances of any game played therein are not alike favorable to all the players, including among the players the manager or managers of the bank. The nude of enforcing the act 8 and 9 Vict. c. 109 was defective, and the act 17 and 18 Vict. c. 38 put heavy pen alties on those who obstructed the police by putting chains or bolts against the doors of gaming-houses, o'r otherwise delaying the entry into such houses, and anv apparatus or arrangement for giving alarm to the persons inside was declared to be evidence that the house was a gaming-house. The persons found inside, and giving a false name or address, were made liable to a penalty of fifty pounds. The owner or keeper of the house is liable in a penalty of L'500. The frequenters of the house are liable also to be examined, and if making true and faithful discovery, are freed from all punishment. The betting-houses' act, 16 and 17 Viet. c. 119, was passed to put down another kind of in houses where money is received as or for the consideration for any undertaking to pay money in the event of any horse-race or other race, f ght.•geme, sport, or exercise. All such betting-houses are declared to be gaming-houses within the statute 8 and 9 Vict. c. 109, and similar powers of search may be resorted to. But nothing in the act extends to a person holding stakes to be paid to the winner of any race or lawful sport, game, or exercise. Besides these statutes, the intoxicating liquors licensing act of 1872 puts a penalty on the keeper of any house for the sale of liquors allowing any gaining for money or money's worth on the premises. By the vagrant acts, all persons are liable to penalties for playing at games on a public high way or public place, and a similar act, 32 and 33 Vict. c. 87, passed for Scotland. The betting-house act and gaming-houses acts did not at first extend to Scotland. the common law, which prevented gaming debts being recoverable, obviating much of the evil inci dent to gaining, but since 1874, it has included that country also. These enactments do snot interfere with gaining in private houses.
In most of the states of Germany, gaming was allowed, and the extent to which it was practiced at the German watering-places was well known. The princes of the petty states often derived a large portion of their revenue from the tenants of their gaming establishments, whose exclusive privileges they gtaranteed. Recently, these German gaming7tables have all been closed. Monaco has now the chief public gaming.
tables of Europe. Abstracts of the laws of different countries relating to gaming were some years ago laid before the house of commons. See vol. 3 of the Political Diction ary of the Standard Library Cyclopadia.