THE PASSION FOR GAMBLING.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 439, 22 January 1890, Page 4

THE PASSION FOR GAMBLING.

Some have argued that gaming is by no means a universal passion, and that it is chiefly prevalent in cold climates, where it stirs the sluggish blood of the inhabitants. But this is a palpable error.. As the elder Disraeli says: 4 The fatal propensity of gambling prevails alike in frigid and torrid zones. The savage and the civilised, the illiterate and the learned, are alike captivated by the hope of accumulating wealth without working for it.’ Another author traces the beginning, of gambling to sacred history. The Jews frequently; he says, determined things by 4 lot.’ 4 ‘ It was settled by lot which of the goats should be offered by Aaron ; the land of Canaan was divided by lot; Saul wa-* by lot marked out for the Hebrew Kingdom ; by lot Jonah was discovered to bo the cause' of the storm. ’ Certainly the nations of the East have, if anything, the gambling propensity more fully developed in them than their Western brethren. The Siamese r.hink nothing of staking,their possessions, their . families, ,at ■ last themselves on the,cast of a die—a Chinaman will play day and night'without intermission untibhe has nothing left that he. can stake, and then; he’ generally goes out and commits the 4 happy despatch.’; In the East' cards as instruments of gambling, were almost unknown except amoqgst the Chinese. Dice and: the gamecocks took their place, and . have ever been found all sufficient for .the purpose. Steinmebjv in ,his Jr work, ‘The Gaming Table,’ tells us that the ancient; Hindoos were inveterate gamblers.