Social Aspects of Crime in England between the Wars by Hermann Mannheim

Author:Hermann Mannheim [Mannheim, Hermann]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780367136147
Google: zsVbnQEACAAJ
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Published: 2020-07-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER EIGHT

GAMBLING

THERE is nothing new in the contention which has inevitably to be made in this chapter that gambling has been one of the most prolific sources of petty crime in England. On the other hand, it belongs to that category of statements which are accepted with but little enthusiasm, and from which one is strongly disinclined to draw the consequences. Nor is a discovery of this kind likely to be regarded as a result worthy of serious scientific study, which latter —as many might argue—ought to concern itself rather with problems of greater subtlety. Last but not least, the vested interests involved are of such magnitude that for this reason, too, great difficulties are to be expected. It may suffice to quote some recent estimates of the annual turnover in Great Britain for betting and gambling: £350,000,000 to £450,000,000 with annual profits of probably far more than £50,000,000. “The total,” writes Mr. Henry Durant in his interesting chapter on the subject,1 “is larger than the turnover in any single industry in this country with the possible exception of the building trade.”

The extremely complicated history of the English gambling legislation has been admirably told in the Final Report of the Royal Commission on Lotteries and Gambling, 1932–33,2 and in the Memorandum supplied by the Home Office to the Commission,3 as well as by several private investigators of the gambling problem, as Mr. Gilbert Slater4 and particularly by the Reverend Ernest Benson Perkins in his various books on the subject.5 Two facts seem to stand out very clearly from the narrative told by our guides through the historical maze: first, that the extent of the evil has early been recognized, and, secondly, that it was not deemed possible to put up a straight fight against it, until it had become almost too late.1

1 The Problem of Leisure (1938), p. 158.

2 P. 4.

3 Minutes of Evidence, p. 1 et seq. See also p. 218 et seq.

4 Poverty and the State (1930), chapter xiii.

5 The Problem of Gambling (1919); Betting Facts (1925); Gambling and Youth (1934).

Beginning with the first enquiry into the subject made in the present century, the Report of the Lord’s Committee of 1902,2 we find that already then most of the essential points had been clearly stated. First, the increase in betting is entirely out of proportion to the growth and increased prosperity of the industrial population. Even when due allowance is made for these changes and for the operation of the Betting Houses Act of 1853, which, by closing these houses and driving the. bookmakers into the streets, brought their business more to the notice of the Police—even then, it was said in 1902, must betting be regarded as more widespread than it used to be.3 Secondly, the increase in crime, as Sir A. de Rutzen, a Metropolitan Magistrate, testified,4 was to a great extent due to betting. “After the case is over, I almost invariably find that betting has been at the bottom of the crime,”5 stated one

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