The statistics of crime prove beyond all cavil that gambling is the
king's highway to fraud and theft. This is not merely because it
loosens general morality and in particular saps the rationale of
property, but because cheating is inseparably associated with most
actual modes of gambling. This does not imply that most persons who
bet are actually cheats or thieves; but persons who continue to be
cheated or robbed, half conscious of the nature of the operations, are
fitting themselves for the other and more profitable part if they are
thrown in the way of acquiring a sufficient quantity of evil skill or
opportunity. The "honor" of a confirmed gambler, even in high life,
is known to be hollow commodity, and where there is less to lose in
social esteem even this slender substitute for virtue is absent. What
percentage of "men who bet" would refuse to utilize a secret tip of
a "scratched" favorite or the contents of an illegally disclosed
sporting telegram? The barrier between fraud and smartness does not
exist for most of them.
[Illustration: (Gamblers cheating at cards)]