EPISODE 4 – 1830-1900: Gambling becomes taboo

By 1830 gambling houses were all over London but not many were like Crockford’s gentleman’s club. A description of one such place was found in the 1833 edition of The Times:

“The generality of minor gambling houses are kept by prize-fighters and other desperate characters, who bully and hector the more timid out of their money by deciding that bets have been lost, when, in fact, they have been won. To these places thieves resort and such other loose characters as are lost to every feeling of honesty and shame.”

The article also talks of incidents where men lost their clothes and were sent home half naked. Concerns of the harmful effects of gambling led to the implementation of The Gaming Act of 1845. The act meant that wagers were no longer able to be legal contracts.

Horse racing had become a professional sport in the 1700’s and organised betting went hand in hand with it – there were over 400 betting shops in operation in the first half of the 19th Century in London. This was discussed in the House of Commons and the Attorney General recommended a bill that would suppress betting as the “mischief arising from the existence of these betting shops is perfectly notorious”.

The betting houses were shut down but this didn’t stop one of Britain’s favourite pastimes. Gambling just moved ‘underground’. The government eventually had to ban street betting in 1906, because it inevitably led to and encouraged illegal betting. The Street Betting Act made it illegal to bet with money anywhere other than a race course.

The Tranby Croft Scandal, otherwise known as the Royal Baccarat Scandal, happened in September 1890 at shipping magnate Arthur Wilson’s home. A group of people, including the Prince of Wales and his good friend Sir William Gordon-Cumming, were playing baccarat illegally when Gordon-Cumming was accused of cheating. The case ended up in court as a slander case. The future king of England King Edward VII had to give evidence and Gordon-Cumming lost the case, retired from the army, humiliated and disgraced.