Note and Comment

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Dec 28, 1911

Gambling in Fashionable Society

That much gambling is carried on in the higher social life, and that the effect of this is seen in the promotion of the spirit on a broader and cruder scale, is very generally recognized, especially by the police forces of our large cities who have to cope with these evils. The police of Chicago have recently threatened to raid some of these society games. The fact that the participants play for “hand-painted china and other desirable and delicate things” is no reason why they should not be placed upon the same basis as the professional gambler who plays for money. Indeed, it is likely that the influence of the fashionable lady gambler is more pernicious, the same as the influence of the moderate drinker is more pernicious in a community than the drunken sot.

Many young men and women reason that these people, occupying high and influential positions, engage with impunity in these practises, so surely there is not so much harm in them after all. They take the first step, but weakness and lack of self-control and circumstances surrounding them often lead them on to lower depths, and they are swallowed up with the spirit of the great gambling evil. It is well for all Christian people to consider, while condemning the grosser evils, if they themselves are in any measure guilty of starting a chain of influences which have aided or abetted in their creation.