Phenix Gazette

Parisian Gaming-Houses.—The following extract from the "Manuel de l'Etranger dans Paris," for 1825, by C. Harmand, is highly creditable to the good principles of the editor:—Of all the seductions to which foreigners are exposed in this great city, the most dangerous, the only one the extent of which cannot be foreseen; the only one from which there is no escape, is gambling. Reason and morality have in vain exerted themselves to put an end to the plague of gaming-houses. The evil that might result from the establishment of secret and clandestine tables, the proceedings of which it would be impossible to overlook, and the income of 5,000,000 francs resulting to the state from these scandalous institutions, induce government to protect them. We will, however, abstain from indicating one of them; preferring to be charged with inaccuracy or imperfection, rather than to facilitate the entrance of a single human being into places from which there is but a step to shame, or death. It is estimated that the sums hazarded at the gaming-tables of Paris, amount to the enormous total of 350,000,000 of francs a year.