Deja Vu

May 26, 2009

Table Limits

Tags:

Fyodor Dostoevsky,

gambling,

Germany,

Russia,

St. Petersburg

“Aided by Poker Devotees, Lawmaker Pushes to End the Ban on Online Gambling,” The New York Times, May 26, 2009.

WASHINGTON — After coming up short in a first effort, a Democratic lawmaker has again introduced legislation that would roll back a ban on Internet gambling enacted when Republicans led Congress.

The legislation, introduced this month by Representative Barney Frank of Massachusetts, would allow the Treasury Department to license and regulate online gambling companies that serve American customers. Under the current law, approved by Congress in September 2006, financial institutions are banned from handling transactions made to and from Internet gambling sites.

At a news conference announcing the legislation, Mr. Frank, who is chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, pointed out that the federal government could collect increased tax revenues if Internet gambling was regulated. But he said online gambling should be legal as a matter of personal liberty, calling it an activity the government should neither encourage nor prohibit.

“Most actions the government should stay out of,” Mr. Frank said.

The Gambler (excerpt), by Fyodor Dostoevsky, trans. C. J. Hogarth, 1867.

At the Casino the Grandmother seemed to be expected, for no time was
lost in procuring her former place beside the croupier. It is my
opinion that though croupiers seem such ordinary, humdrum
officials--men who care nothing whether the bank wins or loses--they
are, in reality, anything but indifferent to the bank's losing, and are
given instructions to attract players, and to keep a watch over the
bank's interests; as also, that for such services, these officials are
awarded prizes and premiums. At all events, the croupiers of
Roulettenberg seemed to look upon the Grandmother as their lawful
prey--whereafter there befell what our party had foretold.

It happened thus:

As soon as ever we arrived the Grandmother ordered me to stake twelve
ten-gulden pieces in succession upon zero. Once, twice, and thrice I
did so, yet zero never turned up.

"Stake again," said the old lady with an impatient nudge of my elbow,
and I obeyed.

"How many times have we lost?" she inquired--actually grinding her
teeth in her excitement.

"We have lost 144 ten-gulden pieces," I replied. "I tell you, Madame,
that zero may not turn up until nightfall."

"Never mind," she interrupted. "Keep on staking upon zero, and also
stake a thousand gulden upon rouge. Here is a banknote with which to do
so."

The red turned up, but zero missed again, and we only got our thousand
gulden back.

"But you see, you see," whispered the old lady. "We have now recovered
almost all that we staked. Try zero again. Let us do so another ten
times, and then leave off."

By the fifth round, however, the Grandmother was weary of the scheme.

"To the devil with that zero!" she exclaimed. "Stake four thousand
gulden upon the red."

"But, Madame, that will be so much to venture!" I remonstrated.
"Suppose the red should not turn up?" The Grandmother almost struck me
in her excitement. Her agitation was rapidly making her quarrelsome.
Consequently, there was nothing for it but to stake the whole four
thousand gulden as she had directed.

The wheel revolved while the Grandmother sat as bolt upright, and with
as proud and quiet a mien, as though she had not the least doubt of
winning.

"Zero!" cried the croupier.

At first the old lady failed to understand the situation; but, as soon
as she saw the croupier raking in her four thousand gulden, together
with everything else that happened to be lying on the table, and
recognised that the zero which had been so long turning up, and on
which we had lost nearly two hundred ten-gulden pieces, had at length,
as though of set purpose, made a sudden reappearance--why, the poor old
lady fell to cursing it, and to throwing herself about, and wailing and
gesticulating at the company at large. Indeed, some people in our
vicinity actually burst out laughing.

"To think that that accursed zero should have turned up NOW!" she
sobbed. "The accursed, accursed thing! And, it is all YOUR fault," she
added, rounding upon me in a frenzy. "It was you who persuaded me to
cease staking upon it."

"But, Madame, I only explained the game to you. How am I to answer for
every mischance which may occur in it?"

"You and your mischances!" she whispered threateningly. "Go! Away at
once!"

"Farewell, then, Madame." And I turned to depart.

"No--stay," she put in hastily. "Where are you going to? Why should you
leave me? You fool! No, no... stay here. It is I who was the fool. Tell
me what I ought to do."

"I cannot take it upon myself to advise you, for you will only blame me
if I do so. Play at your own discretion. Say exactly what you wish
staked, and I will stake it."

"Very well. Stake another four thousand gulden upon the red. Take this
banknote to do it with. I have still got twenty thousand roubles in
actual cash."

"But," I whispered, "such a quantity of money--"

"Never mind. I cannot rest until I have won back my losses. Stake!"

I staked, and we lost.

"Stake again, stake again--eight thousand at a stroke!"

"I cannot, Madame. The largest stake allowed is four thousand gulden."

"Well, then; stake four thousand."

This time we won, and the Grandmother recovered herself a little.

"You see, you see!" she exclaimed as she nudged me. "Stake another four
thousand."

I did so, and lost. Again, and yet again, we lost. "Madame, your twelve
thousand gulden are now gone," at length I reported.

"I see they are," she replied with, as it were, the calmness of
despair. "I see they are," she muttered again as she gazed straight in
front of her, like a person lost in thought. "Ah well, I do not mean to
rest until I have staked another four thousand."

"But you have no money with which to do it, Madame. In this satchel I
can see only a few five percent bonds and some transfers--no actual
cash."

"And in the purse?"

"A mere trifle."

"But there is a money-changer's office here, is there not? They told me
I should be able to get any sort of paper security changed!"

"Quite so; to any amount you please. But you will lose on the
transaction what would frighten even a Jew."

"Rubbish! I am DETERMINED to retrieve my losses. Take me away, and call
those fools of bearers."

I wheeled the chair out of the throng, and, the bearers making their
appearance, we left the Casino.

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