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Page 10
But as such incidents must be common to many of your readers who have
visited the French metropolis, I shall desist from further recital. The
following outline of those receptacles of vice, _French Gaming
Houses_, from facts which I collected on the spot, aided by
authenticated resources, may not prove uninteresting.
Gaming-houses in Paris were first licensed in 1775, by the lieutenant of
police, who, to diminish the odium of such establishments, decreed that
the profit resulting from them should be applied to the foundation of
hospitals. The gamesters might therefore be said to resemble watermen,
looking one way and rowing another. Their number soon amounted to
twelve, and women were permitted to resort to them two days in the week.
Besides the licensed establishments, several illegal ones were
tolerated. In 1778, gaming was prohibited in France; but not at the
court or in the hotels of ambassadors, where police-officers could not
enter. By degrees the public establishments resumed their wonted
activity, and extended their pernicious effects. The numerous suicides
and bankruptcies which they occasioned, attracted the attention of the
_Parlement_, who drew up regulations for their observance; and
threatened those who should violate them with the pillory and whipping.
At length, the passion for gambling prevailing in the societies
established in the Palais Royal, under the title of _clubs_ or _salons_,
a police ordinance was issued in 1785, prohibiting them from gaming, and
in the following year, additional prohibitory measures were enforced.
During the revolution the gaming-houses were frequently prevented and
licenses withheld; but notwithstanding the rigour of the laws, and the
vigilance of the police, they still contrived to exist; and they are now
regularly licensed by the police, and are under its immediate
inspection. The following items of twenty tables distributed about Paris
(the established stake varying from a Napoleon to a sous) are from the
most authentic documents:--
Current expenses 1,551,480 Francs.
_Bail_ to Government 6,000,000 Francs.
Bonus for the bail 166,666 Francs.
Making together 7,716,146 Francs, or about �321,589 English.
Gain of the tables, per annum 9,600,000 Francs.
Expenses as above 7,718,146 Francs.
Leaving a clear profit of 1,881,854 Francs,
or about �78,244 English! And yet, in spite of this unanswerable logic
of _figures and facts_, there are every day fresh victims who are
infatuated enough to believe that it is possible to counterbalance the
advantages which the bank possesses, by a judicious management of the
power the player has of altering his stake! The revenue formerly paid to
the government for licenses, has recently been transferred to the city
of Paris.
In England, the outcry against gaming is loud, and deservedly so; and
the extent to which it is stated to be curried in the higher circles is
rather underrated than exaggerated; but the severity of our laws on this
crime, and recent visitations of its rigour, confine it to the saloons
of wealthy vice. With us it is not a national vice, as in France, where
every license, facility, and even encouragement presents itself.
Lotteries, which have been abolished in England, as immoral nuisances,
are tolerated in France, with more mischievous effect, since, the risk
is considerably less than our least shares formerly were, the lotteries
smaller, and those drawn three times every month. The relics of
_our_ gaming system are only to be found on race-courses; but in
France, half the toys sold at a fair or _f�te_, where mothers win
rattles for their children, are by _lottery_, whilst our gaming at
fairs is restricted to a few low adventurers for snuff-boxes, &c.
Despair is the gloomiest feature of the French character, and of which
gaming produces a frightful proportion, notwithstanding all that our
neighbours say about _our hanging and drowning in November:_
witness their suicides:--
In 1819: Suicides, 376; of which, 126 women.
1820: do. 325; do. 114 do.
1821: do. 348; do. 112 do.
Of the suicides of these three years 25, 50, and 36, were attributed to
love, and 52, 42, 43, to despair arising from _gaming, the
lottery_, &c. In the winter of 1826, several exaggerated losses by
gaming were circulated in Paris with great _finesse_, to enable
bankrupts to account for their deficiencies, many of whom were exposed
and deservedly punished.
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