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"IN THE MATTER OF BETTING" Under the above heading a writer in The Englishman, a weekly published in the interests of labor and trade and the protection of land, has an eminently sensible article on the question of betting. "Betting," he says, "is simply a practical and businesslike manifestation of the gambling spirit. The gambling spirit is the recognition of the law of chance. It is more than that it is the invocation of the law of chance. The obvious abuses need no enlargement at my hands. The law of chance is an uncertainty, and, applied in exaggerated doses, fatal. I may say the same of all the many bottles of medicine that I have had to take wthout the slightest chance of getting a farthing of the money back. "Birth has a great deal to do with gambling. One crowd gambles because it has been born into the means of doing so ; another because it sees in the accident of meaner birth just so much chance. However it may be, the gambling spirit, and its expression in betting, has always existed and, in the nature of things, always will exist. "Clearly there is more in this matter of betting than appears at first sight. I, for my part, would like to see the little business cleared up and bereft of some of the externals that opponents of wagering in any shape wrap round the subject and are mostly cant, or, at all events, looks like it Far be it from me to impugn any objectors honesty of purpose ; but a good many people indulge in cant quite innocently ; they were brought up to it. They dont know that they are canting humbugs in appearance, if not in reality ; and nowadays, of course, appearance is everything. How many people are there who, before voicing an opinion, ask themselves whether they are not speaking by way of prejudice or saying something that might very easily be construed into mere cant of the best? I hold no brief for betting quite the reverse it owes me money. But I do think that a subject of the kind should be approached with a calm, judicial mind, and discussed, not as a canker, which it is not, but as a pursuit that is liable to abuse. "Curiously enough, the legislature has made an enactment which tends most of all to render betting dangerous. There must be no passing of money when the bet is made, or words to that effect. The biggest mistake in the world. I should propose that there be no betting of any kind without the absolute deposit of the entire sum staked. When it comes to paying out, the actual meaning of betting is clearly understood by all parties, and I do not think that anyone will deny to twentieth century men the right to do that which they clearly realize and understand. It is a huge subject and will not spoil for a little more light to be cast upon it." London Sporting Life.
