Gaming is the source from which has sprung up all that race of cheats, swindlers, and sharpers, some of whose nefarious practices have already been noticed, and the remainder of which it is the object of the Author to develope in this chapter.
Such has been the anxiety of the Legislature to suppress this evil, that so early as the reign of Queen Anne, this abandoned and mischievous race of men seems to have attracted its notice in a very particular degree; for the act of the 9th year of that reign (cap. 14. §§ 6, 7,) after reciting, "_that divers lewd and dissolute persons live at great expences, having no visible estate, profession, or calling, to maintain themselves; but support these expences by Gaming only_; Enacts, _that any two Justices may cause to be brought before them, all persons within their limits whom they shall have just cause to suspect to have no visible estate, profession, or calling, to maintain themselves by; but do for the most part support themselves by Gaming; and if such persons shall not make it appear to such Justices that the principal part of their expences is not maintained by gaming, they are to be bound to their good behaviour for a twelve-month; and in default of sufficient security, to be committed to prison, until they can find the same; and if security shall be given, it will be forfeited on their playing or betting at any one time, for more than the value of twenty shillings_."
If, in conformity to the _spirit_ of this wise statute, sharpers of every denomination, who support themselves by a variety of cheating and swindling practices, without having any visible means of living, were in like manner to be called upon to find security for their good behaviour, in all cases where they cannot shew they have the means of subsisting themselves honestly, the number of these Pests of Society, under a general Police and an active and zealous Magistracy, would soon be diminished, if not totally annihilated.
By the 12th of George the Second, (cap. 28. § 2, 3,) "_the Games of Faro, Hazard, &c. are declared to be Lotteries, subjecting the persons who keep them to a penalty of two hundred pounds, and those who play to fifty pounds_."--_One_ witness only is necessary to prove the offence before any Justice of the Peace; _and the Justice forfeits ten pounds if he neglects to do his duty under the Act_:--and under this Act, which is connected with the statute 8th of George I. cap. 2, it seems that "_the keeper of a Faro Table may be prosecuted even for a penalty of five hundred pounds_."