THE SPIELERS' ENCOURAGEMENT ACT.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 516, 25 May 1909, Page 6

THE SPIELERS' ENCOURAGEMENT ACT.

A correspondent, : in a letter, which we jrint to-day, supplies a new land very forcible reason why, the Government ihould not wait beyond the coming lion ,before excising from tho Gaming &.ct of 1907 the clause which compels the ■acing clubs to issue licenses to booknakers. He points out that the statutory recognition of the bookmaker as a person ;o be encouraged and assisted to ply his trade off ere a' dangerous temptation to poung men to abandon honest work and jocome members of the spieler class. It is notorious, of course, that Clause' 35 jf the Aot actually has had tho result of sending thieves and spielers to tho racejourecv Our correspondent; therefore, jails the attention of the Attorncy-Gen-iral to the fact that as the 'Minister for Justice he should realise, now that he is giving his attention to tho general problem of orime, that the objectionable clause of the Act is not only a nuisance for the protection it affords to disreputable bookmakers, but is actually a forcing-bed for criminals.. That the A,ct is stupidly inconsistent in sweeping away gambling with one. hand and-fostering it with the other may not greatly concern the At-torney-General, but that it contains a clause which a reformer anxious to lesson crime would lose no time in attacking ought to make' a special appeal to him. Unfortunately, he seems as little inclined as ever to draw the correct inference from the bad results that have already followed the working of the Act. Instead of recognising that Clause 35 is now proved to be as vicious ,aa everybody knew from the beginning it would be, he blames tho racing clubs for tho great impetus which, has been givon. to the specialkind of roguery concerned. "In my experience," he said in Auckland last week,"if proper care and discretion are exercised by tho racing clubs, and only such men are licensed as bookmakers as can be rolied upon to meet their engagements and behave properly, the evils complained of would largely, if not wholly, disappear. In my ju'dgmcnt, racing clubs owe a duty ; to the public who frequent their courses to j license no bookmaker without making an investigation as to his finances and character." • '-..,,.' The Attorney-General's advice to: .-the racing clubs ia very greatly in contradiction to the attitude which he took up in respect to.the Act some .time ago. Clause .35, it is true, says that a chib shall'is-sue-liccnecs'. to any person who is cpnsid orcd by the club to be "a fit and propei person" to whom to issue a license, bul it is obviously impossible for a club-1( ma.ko such inciuiries as the Attorney-Gen aral suggests; Should a club attempt t< wSthhoid.a liccnw, what would it say i;

the person concerned were to apply to tho Government for the enforcement of the policy which the Minister laid down on December 3, 1007? Dr. FnroiAY has probably forgotten what he told the bookmakers on this occasion. Lot us refresh his memory. Ho said: . ' "For the future one of the conditions will be compliance by the club with Section 85 of the Act of 1907—that is, that if a club refuses to carry out Section 35, then, under tho authority which is given to"nio as Minister in ohaTgo, tho license to Buch a club to use tho totalisator. ivill not be granted. . . . Rcoogniainn that while wo havo so limited tho scope and area in which l you can properly carry on your business, it is our-right, to protect you in the enjoyment of such privileges as aro left you—to protect you against any unreasonable obstruction or circumventing methods which may reduce the right tho statute gives you." Finally he declared that totalisator permits would be refused to .clubs'which "set themselves to evade Section 35 and to reduce the right the Government intended to give the bookmakers to an absurdity." As a lawyer, the Minister ought to perceive that that clause- must be thoroughly bad which requires for its support at one time the prjnciplo tljaf the racing clubs shall not, and at another time tho principle that they shall, apply ,thoir own discretion to the reading of it. The Minister is practically now complaining because the clubs do not use "circumventing methods" to "reduce the rights" of the bookmakers which he censured them in 1907 for using, But it ought to be , a quite sufficient argument for him that tho clause is entirely hostile to such efforts towards the lessening of crime as he is understood to bo meditating. :'■ " '.- '"■ -.-: ■-■■; '.., ■ .'