WAGERING, as now practised by politics and contracts, is become a branch
of assurances; it was before more properly a part of gaming, and as it
deserved, had but a very low esteem; but shifting sides, and the war
providing proper subjects, as the contingencies of sieges, battles,
treaties, and campaigns, it increased to an extraordinary reputation, and
offices were erected on purpose which managed it to a strange degree and
with great advantage, especially to the office-keepers; so that, as has
been computed, there was not less gaged on one side and other, upon the
second siege of Limerick, than two hundred thousand pounds.
How it is managed, and by what trick and artifice it became a trade, and
how insensibly men were drawn into it, an easy account may be given.
I believe novelty was the first wheel that set it on work, and I need
make no reflection upon the power of that charm: it was wholly a new
thing, at least upon the Exchange of London; and the first occasion that
gave it a room among public discourse, was some persons forming wagers on
the return and success of King James, for which the Government took
occasion to use them as they deserved.
I have heard a bookseller in King James’s time say, “That if he would
have a book sell, he would have it burnt by the hand of the common
hangman;” the man, no doubt, valued his profit above his reputation; but
people are so addicted to prosecute a thing that seems forbid, that this
very practice seemed to be encouraged by its being contraband.
The trade increased, and first on the Exchange and then in coffee-houses
it got life, till the brokers, those vermin of trade, got hold of it, and
then particular offices were set apart for it, and an incredible resort
thither was to be seen every day.
These offices had not been long in being, but they were thronged with
sharpers and setters as much as the groom-porters, or any gaming-ordinary
in town, where a man had nothing to do but to make a good figure and
prepare the keeper of the office to give him a credit as a good man, and
though he had not a groat to pay, he should take guineas and sign
polities, till he had received, perhaps, £300 or £400 in money, on
condition to pay great odds, and then success tries the man; if he wins
his fortune is made; if not, he’s a better man than he was before by just
so much money, for as to the debt, he is your humble servant in the
Temple or Whitehall.
But besides those who are but the thieves of the trade, there is a method
as effectual to get money as possible, managed with more appearing
honesty, but no less art, by which the wagerer, in confederacy with the
office-keeper, shall lay vast sums, great odds, and yet be always sure to
win.
For example: A town in Flanders, or elsewhere, during the war is
besieged; perhaps at the beginning of the siege the defence is vigorous,
and relief probable, and it is the opinion of most people the town will
hold out so long, or perhaps not be taken at all: the wagerer has two or
three more of his sort in conjunction, of which always the office-keeper
is one; and they run down all discourse of the taking the town, and offer
great odds it shall not be taken by such a day. Perhaps this goes on a
week, and then the scale turns; and though they seem to hold the same
opinion still, yet underhand the office-keeper has orders to take all the
odds which by their example was before given against the taking the town;
and so all their first-given odds are easily secured, and yet the people
brought into a vein of betting against the siege of the town too. Then
they order all the odds to be taken as long as they will run, while they
themselves openly give odds, and sign polities, and oftentimes take their
own money, till they have received perhaps double what they at first
laid. Then they turn the scale at once, and cry down the town, and lay
that it shall be taken, till the length of the first odds is fully run;
and by this manage, if the town be taken they win perhaps two or three
thousand pounds, and if it be not taken, they are no losers neither.
It is visible by experience, not one town in ten is besieged but it is
taken. The art of war is so improved, and our generals are so wary, that
an army seldom attempts a siege, but when they are almost sure to go on
with it; and no town can hold out if a relief cannot be had from abroad.
Now, if I can by first laying £500 to £200 with A, that the town shall
not be taken, wheedle in B to lay me £5,000 to £2,000 of the same; and
after that, by bringing down the vogue of the siege, reduce the wagers to
even-hand, and lay £2,000 with C that the town shall not be taken; by
this method, it is plain—
If the town be not taken, I win £2,200 and lose £2,000.
If the town be taken, I win £5,000 and lose £2,500.
This is gaming by rule, and in such a knot it is impossible to lose; for
if it is in any man’s or company of men’s power, by any artifice to alter
the odds, it is in their power to command the money out of every man’s
pocket, who has no more wit than to venture.