Gambling

"Gaming in all its forts is too big an evil for the regulation of positive law. Subject it to that, and the event is, you restrain it not at all; but the honest party suffers doubly; and the knave escapes and triumphs. The former loses, he pays; it is a debt of honour: The latter happens to lose, then the condition is changed: I would have taken, if I had won; but now, Ill pay you in law. This is gaming very high indeed; tends to a monopoly; enhances the price of one of the necessaries of life; and therefore merits all the discouragement we can give it."

"He who flatters his vanity so far as to believe that Fortune favours him can seek her favour in more exciting ways; and her favours are just as clearly shown when the stakes are low as when they are high. The taste for play, the result of greed and dullness, only lays hold of empty hearts and heads; and I think I should have enough feeling and knowledge to dispense with its help. Thinkers are seldom gamblers; gambling interrupts the habit of thought and turns it towards barren combinations; thus one good result, perhaps the only good result of the taste for science, is that it deadens to some extent this vulgar passion; people will prefer to try to discover the uses of play rather than to devote themselves to it. I should argue with the gamblers against gambling, and I should find more delight in scoffing at their losses than in winning their money."

"People think Im a gambler. Ive never gambled in my life. To me, a gambler is someone who plays slot machines. I prefer to own slot machines. Its a very good business being the house."

"When youre betting and you win, naturally you have that satisfaction, and the profit."

"Whose game was empires, and whose stakes were thrones; Whose table earth, whose dice were human bones."

"The gamester, if he die a martyr to his profession, is doubly ruined. He adds his soul to every other loss, and by the act of suicide, renounces earth to forfeit Heaven."

"Our Quixote bard sets out a monster taming, Armd at all points to fight that hydra, gaming."

"Shake off the shackles of this tyrant vice; Hear other calls than those of cards and dice: Be learnd in nobler arts than arts of play; And other debts than those of honour pay."

"Look round, the wrecks of play behold; Estates dismemberd, mortgaged, sold! Their owners now to jails confind, Show equal poverty of mind."

"Oh, this pernicious vice of gaming!"

"Ill tell thee what it says; it calls me villain, a treacherous husband, a cruel father, a false brother; one lost to nature and her charities; or to say all in one short word, it calls me—gamester."

"Ay, rail at gaming—tis a rich topic, and affords noble declamation. Go, preach against it in the city—youll find a congregation in every tavern."