BLACK SHEEP AMONG BOOKMAKERS.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 464, 24 March 1909, Page 7

BLACK SHEEP AMONG BOOKMAKERS.

THE TREND OF THE GAMING ACT, (BT Mr.Kolc*rr:.-sPEcui. nmninsrns-nKST.;

, Chrlstohurch, March 23. . Xhe racing clubs of Canterbury are licensing as bookmakers men who are known to bo or bad character and who would not be admitted to racecourses in Australia" said a police officer to a representative of tho "Lvttelton Times" yesterday. Tho remark was made in answer to n question regarding tho statements of a Wellington detective who said that, "under the Gaming Act, 'thugs and spielers' had only to pay £10 in order to pocomo legitimate racecourse thieves'" Ihe applicants for licenses are not required to have any capital or any character," addeu the officer, 'Thjy l.iavo merely to collect enough money to pay the license fee, and then they are at liberty to prey upon the public. Ihey are given a legal standing in the community, l'ormerly the police could deal with these men as vagrants, and did so. Now they cannot be touched, because they have a legal standing in the eommunity-they are not without lawful visible means of support. Inoy are licensed bookmakers. A man who wants a licenso to trado as a second-hand dealer has to pass the ordeal of a strict police examination into his character. There does not oecm to bo any examination at all into the character of the appliennt for a bookmaker's license. Tho only qualification required is ability to pay the license fee It looks as though the clubs wanted to rido the Act to death, and so .disgust tho public with bookmakers that tho totalisator will be allowed to have a monopoly of racing business." Air. W. II E. Wnnklyn, secretary of the Canterbury Jockoy Club, told the reporter that the police sometmes reported to tho club that a man was of bad character, but, unless ttioy could show convictions against him, tho club could not refuse him a license