BAY OF PLENTY BEACON Published Tuesdays and Fridays. TUESDAY, JANUARY 13, 1948 BOOKMAKERS’ HOLIDAY

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 12, Issue 12, 13 January 1948, Page 4

BAY OF PLENTY BEACON Published Tuesdays and Fridays. TUESDAY, JANUARY 13, 1948 BOOKMAKERS’ HOLIDAY

According to an Auckland report, leading bookmakers at Auckland have decided on an extended “holiday”, pending the presentation of a petition to Parliament against some of the Gaming Commission’s recommendations concerning off-the-course betting. In a Magistrate’s Court case at Auckland last week, counsel for a bookmaker who was quite rightly fined heavily, pleaded that “The bookmaking brethren in Auckland enjoyed a reasonably hopeful and happy Christmas in the belief, false as it turned out, that the years of service they have given the community would eventuate in their being rewarded by being licensed following the Gaming Commission’s report.” At this juncture it is not . intended to discuss the rights or wrongs of betting as such. Nor is it intended to attack or defend bookmakers so far as their trade is concerned. However, it is pertinent just now to comment on the bare-faced way in which our democratic laws are flouted.

Here we have the comic opera situation of an organisation of law-breakers seriously expecting Parliament to consider a petition to make their law-breaking legal. As for their “years of service to the community”, there must be many who find that plea laughable. But the fact that it was put forward in a Court of law for the serious consideration of a Magistrate indicates an attitude towards the law that is disturbing as, in fact, is the whole .picture as regards bookmakers today. In every town and most country districts there are men who are known to be carrying on big business in betting. True, many are fined periodically, but they merely pay these “license fees” and carry on, more or less respected members of the community. They themselves are not, to blame. Nor is the law to blame, any more than the licensing laws are to blame for the way in which, they are boldly and widely flouted. There is a tendency in the community to regard these laws as mere interferences with personal liberty, and, breaches of them as more or less comic escapades. Whether or not the laws are bad is not the subject under consideration here.

The point is that true democracy can become effective only if citizens abide by the laws their representatives make, always provided that those laws do not cut directly across their rights as free people. No-one reasonable would consider the laws against bookmaking or drinking after 6 p.m. serious interferences with essential liberties.

If those laws are bad, there are constitutional means to amend them. Both licensing and liquor laws have been the subjects of extensive inquiries indicating that the Government is prepared to consider amendments. In both cases the existing laws were framed to protect weak characters against themselves and prevent their becoming prey for the unscrupulous. The Gaming Commission has recognised the need for an off-the-course betting service and made a recomemndation that should meet the need.

Until the present' law is altered, they should be enforced, and all resposib'le citizens should back up their enforcement.