] I'm only into my second round of the novels. But hopefully it will be so much more interesting and rewarding the second time.

I don't know if this is what you mean by gambling, but in P&P it's obvious that playing cards for money is considered part of a normal social gathering. When Elizabeth and Jane are at Netherfield, Elizabeth joins the others in the evening: "On entering the drawing room, she found the whole party at loo (a card game), and was immediately invited to join them; *but suspecting them to be playing high*, she declined it". That is, she suspects that the stakes they are playing for are too high for her budget. Later on in the book, when Mr. Collins is invited to Mrs. Philips' for an informal evening, he plays whist, and JA says "he had lost every point;...he assured (Mrs. Philips) that it was not of the least importance, that he considered *the money* as a mere trifle...'happily I am not in such circumstances as to make *five shillings* any object'". I remember being slightly shocked when I first read the book at about age fourteen, at the thought of a *minister* playing cards for money!