GAMBLING "SCHOOLS."

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 228, 26 September 1929, Page 28

GAMBLING "SCHOOLS."

GUARD OF WELL-PAID SCOUTS

l BIG BETS. » Bots of £40 and £50 on the. toss of ! a coin are common in gambling schools ; that are run on the moors above Oldham. These schools have existed for nearly ■ 50 years, despite all police efforts to 1 break them up. Scouts, who form a ' wide circular chain around a pitch-and-toss ring to signal the approach of an enemy or of a stranger, are frequently paid as much as £20 a week. : Often nearly 100 men will collect . round the tossing ring. i Since the police made a big raid a year or two ago and, by using a small wing of men in motor cars and char-a-bancs, arrested many gamblers the school now moves its quarters periodically from one part of the moors to another. Motor Cars. During the last year or so a new school has operated on most days except Sundays, whereas the old school meets only on Sundays. In this now school money flows like water. Some patrons attend it in luxurious motor cars, and b-jts against a man "heading" two or three coins or "tailing" them would make the average racegoer revise hia views on what constitutes big betting. I Side by side with a man in aristocra- ' tic dress can be seen a typical Oldham cotton-mill operative in muffler, cap and , clogs. Both might bet Ave, ten, fifteen, twenty w more pounds on the toss of the coin. ' . All On One Throw.

Cases have been known of cotton operatives in full employment refraining fropi smoking or drinking for .twelve months in order to save ten or twenty pounds and then go to. the tossing school and stake all on one throw. Sometimes a labourer might finish with £80 to £100 won in one. (lav. Other times he might have to beg coppers for hia tram fare back to Oldham. The man who tosses the coins in the ring is a "professional" who commands a big salary. Some men who undertake this work are amazingly clever in "heading" two or three coins tossed into, the air from the palm. The ringmaster is usually a sturdily built man with a hefty stick. His job is to see that a certain'percentage of the money from each bet is handed over to swell the fund frorii which the scouts, the tosser and himself are paid.