MO 



OaUIN'G & OAMBLIVO. 



From the year 1810 up to 1818, there were no lesl 

 than 690 convictions for gaming in Penang alone 1 

 H hich was then the chief British station in the Straits,* 

 and some of these convictions were for the ninth 

 offence ! It was betides known that an equal num- 

 ber, at the least, of informations had been laid ; but 

 which were not followed by convictions. It wad also 

 ascertained by the magistrates that not one in the of 

 those who gained or gambled privately, were noticed 

 by- the police. At the periods alluded to, Penang 

 was the centre of the trade of the Straits ; and the 

 circulation of capital was much wider here than 

 what it is at the present day. It was then estimated 

 that the coin exchanged at Chinese Po or dice tables, 

 in private houses, and secret haunts, exceeded ihe 

 sum of 150,000 Spanish dollars annually, 1 1t*/ fax 

 being about 40,000 dollars. The attempt to suppress 

 the vice, or rather the ceasing to license it, threw the 

 a hove sine ifi the hands vf the gamesters. At tin: 

 same time, it was officially reported that the police 

 did nothing hut watch gamesters in order Vj extort 

 bush .money from them. 



It would now «fem (hat all hopes have been long 

 since abandoned of abat ing the evil by mere police re- 

 gulations, and the natural result has been the same 

 nearly ;>.s fl'au immunity had been given to it; if not, as 

 if a premium had heen offered for its encouragement. 

 However positive the law against gaming may he, 

 >ct, if its actual influence can go no further than to 

 ujtin, wilhout probing the evil, the latter will take the 

 dangerous and seductive shape of a forbidden iudul- 

 gettoe, which is yet unpunishable, and therefore 

 merely a cnunived-at nuisance. If, as has ever been 

 loudly asserted, the pracl ice lias become inveterate, 



• Id Sejit, 1818 Malacca wa* iransfwrcd lo Ui« Dutch. 



