Hell and Hazard, or William Crockford Versus the Gentlemen of England

There are today a number of aristocratic families in England who still suffer from losses sustained by their ancestors at the hands of William Crockford, father of modern bookmaking. Crockford, born in squalor near Temple Bar in 1775, was endowed with an amazing ability to calculate odds more accurately and shrewdly than his fellows. In fact, he soon amassed enough money to open gambling halls all over London. In 1828, he opened Crockford's Club, in the heart of Mayfair. Its members were the cream of Society; its cuisine the best in Europe. And behind this facade of respectability, Crockford accumulated a huge personal fortune and beggared half the aristocracy of England. This is the complete and sordid story of one of the first men to understand what has become basic to most successful forms of vice: that to succeed, vice must be engaged in luxury.