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The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 75

Gambling

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Gambling.

In a certain town a man followed the calling of spieler at intervals, as a break to the monotony of his ordinary occupation; he was brought before the magistrate for playing games of chance on racecourses. The magistrate decided that the game was contrary to law, but the man continued to play it. There were complaints from the public as to the defiance of the law displayed by the gamester. The local M.H.R. wrote the Commissioner of Police asking that this man should not be interfered with, for certain reasons, and Commissioner Hume replied as follows:—

"I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 12th inst., re the conditions of a game called 'Bird on the Wing,' as to whether it is, or is not, a game of chance, and to inform you in reply that the matter has already been decided by a resident magistrate, who stated that the game is a game of chance; and, therefore, the police have no option in the matter, but are bound to stop it at all gatherings, under Clause 8 of the Gaming and Lotteries Act, 1881."

The man continued to defy the law, and complaints came to the Commissioner on the subject. Within ten months of writing the letter quoted, the Commissioner wrote some of these complainants as follows:—

"The police are of opinion that the 'Bird on the Wing' is not a game of chance, and therefore, they were not justified in taking any action."

The Commissioner wrote that letter with the following report from the inspector for the district before him:—

"The game referred to is purely a game of chance, and, like all other games of chance, in fair enough if fairly played, but a clear breach of the law. If this same is allowed, then all other games of chance must be tolerated, and the continual increase of spielers allowed to go on unchecked by the police."

Then the local police took action against the gamester, but the summons was withdrawn by the Minister of Defence and the Commissioner of Police upon a letter being received from the local M.H.R. Amongst the voluminous correspondence which passed, one letter from the Inspector of Police (who had replaced the officer whose report is quoted above), stated that "strong efforts would be made during the coming session of Parliament to legalise the game." This scandalous connivance with law-breaking was still resisted by the public, and upon the Commissioner receiving a letter threatening a Parliamentary exposure of the affair, and a petition demanding the suppression of the game from 456 residents in the town, the police took action against the man, and secured a conviction, and the stoppage of the game. Tammany corrupts justice to serve political and private interests, and the case quoted is more than a shadow of the American curse—it is the thing itself.

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