Cracking Down on Gambling and Loan Sharking

Although the investigation revealed that the matter was not as serious as imagined, and there was no evidence of veterans being mistreated, Victor was still quite dissatisfied with Old Ryan's behavior, and consequently, with the Veterans Affairs Bureau's work.

After all, the Veterans Affairs Bureau is supposed to help veterans reintegrate into society. Although Old Ryan is not short of money and lives a comfortable life, the Veterans Affairs Bureau has not instilled a correct social outlook in him.

Victor believes this indicates significant shortcomings in the work of the Veterans Affairs Bureau, and the incident has become a topic of discussion within the Veterans Affairs Bureau, highlighting the need to improve veterans' social values.

Victor also realized that he hadn't strictly prohibited gambling before, and now he was suffering the consequences.

The amount of gambling funds and debts seized through the subsequent crackdown on these gangs and small gambling dens alone exceeded several thousand taels of silver, which is truly shocking.

Victor understood that gray areas like gambling and loan sharking must be curbed, otherwise, sooner or later, numerous negative consequences would arise, impacting social stability and development.

Moreover, such industries can become breeding grounds for socially unstable groups like gangs, which is detrimental to the local government's control over the grassroots.

Therefore, Victor simply cracked down on these behaviors and ordered the territory to enact laws strictly prohibiting gambling. Playing gambling games was allowed, but gambling amounts reaching a certain scale would be a criminal offense.

If any public official is found to be involved in gambling, they must be demoted or dismissed, regardless of rank or background; even nobles will be dealt with the same way.

The subsequent investigation also revealed that the person behind Scarface was the Deputy Minister of the Government Affairs Department of the Territory, Powell's direct subordinate.

Although it was found that this person had no other illegal activities, he was still punished as Scarface's backer, and Victor demanded that he be dealt with severely.

He was stripped of his position and his lifetime peerage, and was forced to become a commoner with his family, forced to go to the countryside to farm. Powell was also fined six months' salary for mismanagement.

Such a severe punishment naturally caused a stir within the civil service system, and everyone understood the Duke's attitude towards this matter.

However, everyone understood that Victor had been quite lenient with the offending official. If this had happened in the early stages of the territory's development, under the harsh laws of that chaotic era, this guy would not only have been dismissed from his post, but might even have had his property confiscated and been forced to go mining with his family.

However, the territory no longer enforces such harsh measures unless a serious crime has indeed been committed.

This is also related to the fact that the Scarface and his gang haven't committed any major crimes; at least they don't dare to cause any big trouble, or perhaps they haven't had the chance to yet.

After all, these gangs, which mainly engage in gambling and loan sharking, are relatively small in scale. Although they have a lot of money, they don't dare to confront the local government.

Even Ryan, whose leg was accidentally broken, was injured during an argument.

At least among the major gang leaders arrested, no serious crimes were found during the investigation. Even if there were occasional incidents of assault, they were not intentional.

This gang is quite sensible. Their method of collecting debts through usury is not primarily based on violence. Instead, they cunningly use threats and intimidation. This is because the relevant laws in the territory are still in the dark, which gives them an opportunity to exploit the situation.

This also reveals the characteristics of these gangs: they collude with local officials, operate in the gray area, but dare not fully become criminal organizations, since the iron fist of the territory is still quite intimidating.

But if Victor hadn't taken the initiative to crack down on these gangs involved in loan sharking and gambling, they would probably have grown stronger sooner or later and committed even more serious crimes. This crackdown can be seen as a preventative measure.

Victor knew that this situation could not continue. As the territory gradually developed, more and more social conflicts would emerge.

This will inevitably give these gangs room to grow, and sooner or later they will rise again and challenge the authority of the government.

With this in mind, Victor decided to set strict standards for private lending, with usury and high-interest loans being absolutely prohibited.

Of course, Victor also knew that there was a demand for loans among the public, and that even without gambling, there were many other needs.

Based on the loan records obtained, many residents also resort to high-interest loans due to various circumstances.

For example, family members falling ill or their own businesses needing extra funds may force them to seek loans from loan sharks, since not everyone has a group of wealthy relatives, and even if they do, they may not be willing to lend them money.

Currently, although the territory offers agricultural loans for farmers, they are mainly small-amount loans, and there is indeed a gap in the commercial loan sector.

Victor felt it was time to further open up financial policies, and he ordered the territory's Finance Department to begin preparations to establish a formal commercial bank in the territory, using the microloans previously operated by the Supply and Marketing Cooperative cooperatives as an example, to provide collateralized commercial loans to the territory's residents.

Victor also stipulated that, regardless of the loan amount, no one should be included in the collateral.

Although the territory currently has a large number of slaves, these slaves are all government slaves. Even if wealthy people or officials rent slaves from the government, the ownership still belongs to the territory, not to the individuals.

Victor considered this ownership of slaves as a privilege of the nobility, strictly prohibiting anyone without noble status from possessing it.

Victor knew it was impossible to completely ban slavery, and that the development of his territory required these slaves as a foundation, but he also knew that keeping slaves was the greatest waste of human resources.

Therefore, by strictly limiting the right to own slaves, and relying on his own prestige, he advocated that the territorial governments and vassal nobles would not squander the lives of these slaves.

However, as things develop in the future, the territory will purchase fewer and fewer slaves, and the number of slaves owned by the government will also decrease.

After all, these slaves who signed contracts with the government would gain their freedom as long as they worked for a certain number of years, which could be considered Victor's reward for their hard work.

Except for a few extremely heinous crimes that led to their demotion to slavery, most of the remaining slaves eventually regained their freedom.

According to Victor's plan, one day the slaves in the territory will completely disappear.

With the conclusion of this Special Crackdown Operation, the Two Rivers County Government conducted a significant cleanup of the community, uprooting numerous active groups operating in the gray area. This has boosted the community atmosphere and won enthusiastic responses from many residents.

Although these residents have not yet widely experienced harm from these gangs and activism groups, there are many disturbing rumors surrounding these gangs, so the government's crackdown on them has naturally been widely praised.

Even patrol officers who previously had a negative reputation saw their public image reversed due to their significant performance in this operation.

For example, when Bobok went to buy Yousubing again, the shopkeeper no longer felt particularly afraid of him, but instead showed him a bit of respect.