Gambling Control - The History Behind It
Attempts to control Gambling is not a new invention and is know
to exist since the early ages of developing civilization and
culture. And just as civilization developed, so did the split of
society in different classes. Law's controlling gambling had
very close ties to the society structure and people's belonging
to the certain classes.
Rome's Emperors are known to play "dice" and did it fairly
often, especially August and Claudius. But regular citizen of
the Rome were allowed to play only during certain seasons.
During the Middle Ages Church and Royalty of different countries
made attempts to get rid of gambling and their failures serve as
a proof of humanity strong interest to this form of
entertainment. Long list of church's hierarchs could be started
from St. Kiprian Carthaginian (about 240 AD) and continue up to
St. Bernardino Of Siena (1423). In 1232 Fredrik II published a
ban on "game of dice" and Louis IX in 1255 outlawed production
of "dice" and associated equipment.
During this long period most of the gambling was represented by
variations of "dice" games. Card games didn't become popular
until about 1350. Interesting thing is that all bans and
prohibitions were directed against the sins associated with
games and not so much the games themselves. Church was more
worries by drunkenness and swearing that accompanied the games
and government was interested to stop laziness, wastefulness,
fraud and cheating and criminality that were that were obviously
associated with gambling.
That gambling itself were not considered an evil could be seen
from a fact that in 960 Bishop W. Cambrian invented a church
version of "game of dice". His goal was not to root the games
but turn them into something good and useful. British Monarchs
starting with Edgar III published number of restriction laws
with purpose of protection men sports and martial arts. Henry
VIII announced gambling houses outlawed, even though he was an
apt gambler himself, because they distracted young people for
archery and military training. This Henry's verdict against
"public game houses" existed in England about 400 year - till
1960's.
Our days are not any different and each country is trying to
find its own ways to control historically developed interest
humanity to gambling. Unfortunately they are too numerous to
even attempt to list them but it's not even a point of this
short article. Perhaps it's time to stop controlling and start
educating people. Responsible gambling is a source of many hours
of entertainment and if properly educated perhaps a wider
population can enjoy it.
Article based on materials published on www.library.ru