Technically, Scout thinks that there is more harm to be had, in the form of punishment that is, in playing cards than in playing with matches. Two factors inform her opinion: she's very young and has probably never been in trouble for setting a fire, but has been in trouble for "gambling;" they live in the South, where gambling is looked down on as a serious sin, especially by Baptists.
In Ch. 6 Jem comes home with no pants on because he got them caught on the Radley fence as he ran out of their yard (after sneaking in). He cannot say that, however, as he would get in big trouble, so he lies and says that he, Scout, and Dill were playing strip poker. To this Atticus asks if they were playing cards, and Jem says that they were only playing with matches. Thus, Scout says, "Matches were dangerous, but cards were fatal." While this might sound like a strange comparison to most readers, her points of comparison are fairly narrow and she has yet to experience the trouble that matches can cause.
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