FLASH1296
Well-Known Member
"From the prince’s baccarat and Monte Carlo’s roulette and ''trente-et-quarante',
to the soldier’s 'crown and anchor' and the errand boy’s 'pitch and toss', it is a
history of stakes lost, relieved by incidents of irrational acquisition. It is a
history of landslides in an account book. It is a pattern of slithering cards,
dancing dice, spinning roulette wheels, coloured counters and scribbled
computations on a background of green baize. It is a world parasitic on the
general economic organization-fungoid and aimless, rather than cancerous and
destructive, in its character. A stronger, happier organization would reabsorb it
or slough it off altogether."
----- H.G. Wells, The Work, Wealth and Happiness of Mankind