At Crockford’s, the Queen of the gaming-clubs, as much as L20.000 had been known to be lost and won in a single evening. Crockford himself had risen from making his living as a small fishmonger to presiding as ‘the Scourge and Favourite of the Rich and Fashionable World.’ Faro, Jen d’enfer, blind-hookey, all were played in night-long sessions, and, although games of hazard were officially illegal in England, many Ministers of the Crown were members of Crockford’s, and the Duke of Wellington was at one time a member of the managing committee.

From: R.J. White: Life in Regency England. London: Batsford, 1963.