Gambling

[A.S. gamian, to play at any sport. See GAME.] Playing at games of hazard or chance tor money. Strictly speaking, gambling may be under. stood as gaming in its worst sense, and as implying pro fe ional play for a money stake, by men who are unscrupulous adepts at so-called games of chance. G. is a vice which has been common among most nations, civilized and uncivilized. Tacitus tells us that the ancient Germans were so addicted to it, that, when stripped of everything else, they would stake at last their liberty, and their very lives; the loser going into voluntary slavery, and though much younger and stronger than his antagonist, suffering himself to be bound and sold. In Rome, particularly during the empire, the practice was common, and various enactments were made against it. In England, also, gambling was early made the subject of penal enactments. By 33 Henry VIII. c. 9., "no person shall, for his gain, lucre, or living, keep any common house, alley, or place of bowling, coyting (quoiting), cloth (billiards), cayls, half-bowls, tennis, diceing-table, carding, or any unlawful game then or thereafter to be used, on pain of forfeiting 40 shillings a day; " and every person haunting or using the said houses was declared to forfeit 6s. Sd. By 9 Anne, c. 14, all bonds and other securities won at play were declared to be void, and every person losing £10 at one time or sitting might, within three months, recover the same, with costs, in any court of record; and after three months any other person might sue for and recover the same, and treble the value thereof, with costs. Various statutes were subsequently enacted on this subject; and in 1845, Act 8 & 9 Vict. c. 109, was pa ed, which greatly facilitated proceedings against common gambling-houses. By 16 & 17 Vict. c. 119, betting houses were declared to be within the jurisdiction of the acts against G. Other acts have since been even more stringent, but notwithstanding all these legislative enactments, there still exist in London not a few gambling houses, which go by the appropriate name of hells. In most of the German states G. was allowed, and the petty sovereigns of several of them derived a large revenue from letting the exclusive privilege of keeping such establishments at some of the most fashionable spas. as Baden-Baden, Homburg, Wiesbaden, .; but, of late, the German imperial government has laid a stringent interdiction on G. In France, prior to 1838, when the practice was abolished, the exclusive right of keeping public gambling-houses was let out to a company, who paid the government six millions of francs annually for the privilege. In this country statutes have been pa ed in most, if not in all the States, forbidding gambling for money at certain games. In spite of this, however, G. may be said to be almost universally practised in most of our great cities, and with but a semiveil of secrecy thrown over the haunts where it is car ried on. Gam'bles, in Pennsylvania , a village of Allegheny co. Gam'boge, n. Same as CAMBOGE, q. v. Gambogian, Gambogic, a . Pertaining to, or like gamboge; containing gamboge or camboge. Gam'bol, v. n. [ Fr.gambiller , from O. Fr. gambe ; Ital. The American Dictionary and Cyclopedia gamba, the leg.] To kick about; to dance and skip and sometimes bound. The Romans were pa ionately about in sport; to frisk; to play in frolic. Bears, tigers... gambolled before them."- Milton . -To start; to leap. "And I the matter will record, which madne Would gambol from."-Shaks. Gam'bol, n. A skipping or leaping about in frolic; a skip; a hop; a leap; a sportive prank. "For who did ever play his gambols With such insufferable rambles?"-Hudibras.