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The Gaming Table by Andrew Steinmetz
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CHAPTER
XIV. page 11
The first of the strictly-called Gaming Acts is one of Charles
II.'s reign, which was intended to check the habit of gambling so
prevalent then, as before stated. By this Act it was ordered
that, if any one shall play at any pastime or game, by gaming or
betting with those who game, and shall lose more than one hundred
pounds on credit, he shall not be bound to pay, and any contract
to do so shall be void. In consequence of this Act losers of a
less amount--whether less wealthy or less profligate--and the
whole of the poorer classes, remained unprotected from the
cheating of sharpers, for it must be presumed that nobody has a
right to refuse to pay a fair gambling debt, since he would
evidently be glad to receive his winnings. No doubt much misery
followed through the contrivances of sharpers; still it was a
salutary warning to gamesters of the poorer classes--whilst in
the higher ranks the `honour' of play was equally stringent, and,
I may add, in many cases ruinous. By the recital of the Act it
is evident that the object was to check and put down gaming as a
business profession, `to gain a living;' and therefore it
specially mulcted the class out of which `adventurers' in this
line usually arise.