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The Gaming Table by Andrew Steinmetz

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GAMBLING AMONG THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS, PERSIANS, AND GREEKS

CHAPTER III. page 3

Thus early were dice made subservient to the purposes of
cruelty and murder. The modern Persians, being Mohammedans, are
restrained from the open practice of gambling. Yet evasions are
contrived in favour of games in the tables, which, as they are
only liable to chance on the `throw of the dice,' but totally
dependent on the `skill' in `the management of the game,' cannot
(they argue) be meant to be prohibited by their prophet any more
than chess, which is universally allowed to his followers; and,
moreover, to evade the difficulty of being forbidden to play for
money, they make an alms of their winnings, distributing them to
the poor. This may be done by the more scrupulous; but no doubt
there are numbers whose consciences do not prevent the disposal
of their gambling profits nearer home. All excess of gaming,
however, is absolutely prohibited in Persia; and any place
wherein it is much exercised is called `a habitation of corrupted
carcases or carrion house.'[20]

[20] Hyde, _De Ludis Oriental_.

In ancient Greece gambling prevailed to a vast extent. Of this
there can be no doubt whatever; and it is equally certain that it
had an influence, together with other modes of dissipation and
corruption, towards subjugating its civil liberties to the
power of Macedon.

So shamelessly were the Athenians addicted to this vice, that
they forgot all public spirit in their continued habits of
gaming, and entered into convivial associations, or formed
`clubs,' for the purposes of dicing, at the very time when Philip
of Macedon was making one grand `throw' for their liberties at
the Battle of Chaeronea.

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