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Volume I Volume II

The Gaming Table by Andrew Steinmetz

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THE RISE AND PROGRESS OF MODERN GAMING IN ENGLAND

CHAPTER VI. page 8


Capital was not the only qualification for admission into the
Confederacy of Gambling. Some of the members were taken into
partnership on account of their dexterity in `securing' dice or
`dealing' cards. One is said to have been actually a sharer in
every `Hell' at the West-End of the Town, because he was feared
as much as he was detested by the firms, who had reason to know
that he would `peach' if not kept quiet. Informers against the
illegal and iniquitous associations were arrested and imprisoned
upon writs, obtained by perjury--to deter others from similar
attacks; witnesses were suborned; officers of justice bribed;
ruffians and bludgeon-men employed, where gratuities failed;
personal violence and even assassination threatened to all who
dared to expose the crying evil--among others, to Stockdale, the
well-known publisher of the day, in Piccadilly.

Then came upon the nation the muddy flood of French
emigrants, poured forth by the Great Revolution--a set of men,
speaking generally, whose vices contaminated the very atmosphere.

Before the advent of these worthies the number of gambling houses
in the metropolis, exclusive of those so long established by
subscription, was not more than half-a-dozen; but by the year
1820 they had increased to nearly fifty. Besides _Faro_ and
_Hazard_, the foreign games of _Macao, Roulette, Rouge et Noir_,
&c., were introduced, and there was a graduated accommodation for
all ranks, from the Peer of the Realm to the Highwayman, the
Burglar, and the Pick et.

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