Sport and Colonialism in 19th Century Australasia - LA84 Foundation

For the gentry, gambling was typically a means of display,
in which they could show their wealth and their contempt for
mere money, rather than a means of increasing that wealth. For
them, losing large stakes was just as important as winning. They
were not concerned with trying to achieve good odds. An evenmoney
bet had greater attraction than the possibility of winning
a large sum for a small investment. 16
For the poorer classes however, a win offered the opportunity
to achieve things which were normally beyond their means.
The man who won at "throwing at cocks" could assume, for awhile,
the role of entrepreneur. One who won a prize in a lottery
could present his sweetheart with a trinket. For most of the
labouring classes income was irregular and savings were virtually
unheard of, apart from the money put aside for burial expenses.
So for them, gambling provided a unique opportunity
and naturally they were attracted to those forms which offered
the possibility of a large prize in return for a small outlay. 17
The history of British lotteries illustrates this difference
in attitude. When England's first national lottery was
held between 1567 and 1569, 100,000 tickets were offered at ten
shillings each for a £5,000 first prize. The tickets were too
expensive for all but the wealthy, and that group showed little
interest in this type of gambling. Less than 10 per cent of the
tickets were sold and prizes were reduced accordingly. As a
fund-raising exercise this lottery was a failure. It did, how-
ever, provide inspiration for numerous less ambitious and consequently
less expensive lotteries which followed. Small scale
lotteries, sometimes state-run but more frequently private
lotteries used as a means of selling goods at provincial fairs,
achieved such enormous support from the poorer classes that
legislative attempts were made in 1669 and 1710 to restrict
their growth. These attempts failed and "little-goes" continued
to attract greater support; to the point where a parliamentary
enquiry in 1808 recommended their prohibition. 18
Although the wealthy and the poorer classes were attracted
to different forms of gambling, or were motivated by different
desires, they were mutually interdependent. In particular, the
major betting outlets provided occasions for class co-operation.
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