ABSTRACT
There is nothing new in the contention which has inevitably to be made in this chapter that gambling has been one of the most prolific sources of petty crime in England. Gambling legislation is a very individual subject which can hardly be dealt with for every country alike. As the statute has exerted a most powerful influence on the criminological aspects of the gambling problem, its principal contents and consequences may briefly be summarized. The gambling business as the supreme agency for social justice in preference to Courts, Church, Unemployment Board, and the other social services! Some writers used to stress the close psychological and economic link between gambling and drink: “Drink and betting,” says Canon Peter Green, “go hand in hand. One branch of the gambling business seems to require special attention: Dog-racing with a mechanical hare, brought to England in 1926.
