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of the gambling-banks; but it is not used collectively: the fortunes of the gambling-public are devoured successively, the sticks which would be irresistible when combined, are broken one by one. I leave my readers to judge whether this circumstance should encourage gambling or the reverse.
I may thus present the position of the gambler who is not ready to secure Fortune as his ally by trickery :--If he meets gamblers who are not equally honest, he is not trying his luck against theirs, but at the best (as De Morgan puts it) only a part of his luck against the whole of theirs; if he meets players as honest as himself, he must nevertheless, as Lord Holland said to Selwyn, ' be in earnest and without irony --en verite le serviteur tres-humble des evenements--in truth, the very humble servant of events.'
FAIR AND UNFAIR WAGERS.
I GAVE in my 'How to Play Whist' (under the head ' Whist Whittlings ') a case in which a certain man of title used to offer freely 1,000/. to 1l. against the occurrence of a whist hand containing no card above a nine -a most unfair wager. Odds of a thousand pounds to one are very tempting to the inexperienced. ' I risk my pound,' such a one will say, ' but no more, and I may win a thousand.' That is the chance; and what is the certainty ? The certainty is that in the long run such bets will involve a loss of 1,828/. for each thousand pounds gained, or a net loss of 828l. As certain to all intents as that two and two make four, large number of wagers made on this plan would mean for the clever layer of the odds a very large gain. Yet Lord Yarborough would probably have been indignant to a degree if he had been told that in taking 11. for each hand on which he wagered which did not prove to be a 'Yarborough,' he was in truth defrauding the holder of the hand of 9s. 0 3/4d., notwithstanding the preliminary agreement, simply because the preliminary agreement was an unfair one. As to his being told that even if he had wagered 1,828/.
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