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Volume I

The Gaming Table by Andrew Steinmetz, Volume II

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Doings In Gaming Houses

HOSPITALITY OF GAMING HOUSES, AND POPULARITY OF CITY MEN AT THEM.

Joseph Atkinson and his wife, who for many years kept a gaming
house at No. 15 under the Piazza, Covent Garden, gave daily
magnificent play dinners,--cards of invitation for which were
sent to the clerks of merchants, bankers, and brokers in the
city. Atkinson used to say that he liked CITIZENS--whom he
called FLATS--better than any one else, for when they had DINED
they played freely, and after they had lost all their money they
had credit to borrow more. When he had CLEANED THEM OUT, when
THE PIGEONS WERE COMPLETELY PLUCKED, they were sent to some of
their solvent friends. After dinner play was introduced, and,
till dinner time the nest day, different games at cards, dice,
and E O were continually going on.

THE TRAFFIC IN HUSH MONEY.

Theophilus Bellasis, an infamous character, was well known at Bow
Street, where he had been charged with breaking into the
counting-house of Sir James Sanderson, Bart. Bellasis was
sometimes clerk and sometimes client to John Shepherd, an
attorney of Bow Street; while at other times Shepherd was
prosecutor of those who kept gaming houses, and Bellasis
attorney. Sir William Addington, the magistrate, was so well
aware that these two men commenced prosecutions solely for the
purpose of HUSH MONEY, that he refused to act. The Joseph
Atkinson just mentioned at one time gave them L100, at another
L80; and in this way they had amassed an immense sum, and
undertook, for a specific amount, to defend keepers of gaming
houses against all prosecutions!

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