GAMBLING AT TENNIS.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 383, 10 July 1889, Page 6

GAMBLING AT TENNIS.

Mr Julian Marshall, a leading authority (as everyone knows) on tennis, gives the foH lowing answer (in ' Notes and Quei-ies ') to the question, ' Whether there is gambling at tennis :' — ' This deperids on the signification of the term gambling. By this many people would understand the act of betting at all on the result of a game or match, or on any other doubtful issue. Others, again, would say that it meant " playing extravagantly for money," as Johnson defined it. But then, what does "extravagantly" mean? That which is an extravagance on the part of a poor man is not such when done by a millionaire, who can afford to bet and lose £100, while his neighbour may be intensely chagrined at the loss of a single sovereign. The only safe course, if one bets at all, is to bot within one's meanp, aa said George Herbert — Play not for gain, but sporfc; who plays for more Than he can lose with pleasure, stakes his heai't; though sterner moralists will say, Bet not at all. Thus in my experience of tennis, I have seen most men play for a shilling or two, or a crown ; many for a pound, or more, on each set. 1 have known £10 frequently betted on a set, or match ; and in Paris as much as twenty, fifty, a hundrod louis, and more, depending on the result of a match, and nearly as much sometimes in English tennis courts. Indeed, unless I am much mistaken, I remember a match for £25 being played in 1880. Whether this be "extravagant playing for money" or not, depends, to my mind, on the circumstances of each case ; but few people, I think, would contend that it was not "gambling, within the meaning of the Act." '— • Pall Mall Budget.'