or not, one thing is certain;--gaming is opposed to the happiness of
mankind, and ought, in every civilized country, to be suppressed by
public opinion. By gaming, however, I here refer to those cases only in
which property is at stake, to be won or lost. The subject of
_diversions_ will be considered in another place.

Gaming is an evil, because, in the first place, it is a practice which
_produces_ nothing. He who makes two blades of grass grow where but one
grew before, has usually been admitted to be a public benefactor; for
he is a _producer_. So is he who combines or arranges these productions
in a useful manner,--I mean the mechanic, manufacturer, &c. He is
equally a public benefactor, too, who produces _mental_ or _moral_
wealth, as well as physical. In gaming, it is true, property is shifted
from one individual to another, and here and there one probably gains
more than he loses; but nothing is actually _made_, or _produced_. If
the whole human family were all skilful gamesters, and should play
constantly for a year, there would not be a dollar more in the world at
the end of the year, than there was at its commencement. On the
contrary, is it not obvious that there would be much _less_, besides
even an immense loss of time?[9]

But, secondly, gaming favors corruption of manners. It is difficult to
trace the progress of the gamester's mind, from the time he commences
his downward course, but we know too well the goal at which he is
destined to arrive. There may be exceptions, but not many; generally
speaking, every gamester, sooner or later travels the road to
perdition, and often adds to his own wo, by dragging others along with
him.

Thirdly, it discourages industry. He who is accustomed to receive large
sums at once, which bear no sort of proportion to the labor by which
they are obtained, will gradually come to regard the moderate but
constant and certain rewards of industrious exertion as insipid. He is
also in danger of falling into the habit of paying an undue regard to
hazard or chance, and of becoming devoted to the doctrine of fatality.

As to the few who are skilful enough to gain more, on the whole, than
they lose, scarcely one of them pays any regard to prudence or economy
in his expenditures. What is thus lightly acquired, is lightly disposed
of. Or if, in one instance in a thousand, it happens otherwise, the
result is still unfavorable. It is but to make the miser still more a
miser, and the