RECOVERING OF BETS

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1639, 4 January 1913, Page 6

RECOVERING OF BETS

BOOKMAKERS' BRIEF JOY-DAY

TRUST OR CASH. Judge Rcntoul's interesting decision oh Tuesday says tho "Daily Mail" *f November 22, in a betting case that came before him, stirred up tho ■ bookmakers, tho keepers of tho great starting-prico olbces, mid a largo section of the public that bets on weekly settlement' terms to a state of unusual and amused excitement. .■■■■' 11 Th ? dec i sio ? ° f Judgo Eentoul was that tho defendant, who pleaded tho Gaming Act for a betting" debt, should refund tho mono}- ho won and received by cheque from the same bookmaker tho previous week His Honour said it was opening 1 a wide door, but ho did not seo what there was to stop it. Act 5 and 0 William IV., cap. 11, sec. 2, jprovided-'that in case any person should execute' any note, bill, etc., the money/procured thereby.,, if the transaction for which any note, bill, etc., had been given was a gambling transaction, could be recovered.. This section was new to tho judge, but when the bookmaker's counsel .pointed it out ho accepted it and decided that if the defendant would not pay'.tho £12.125. Gd. ho lost he must certainly refund the £1 hv+ifi i WO I ' an i*"s paid by cheque ,by the bookmaker tho previous week.-.' A Daniel .Come to judgment. •■ Tho-big startinß-prioo, bookmakers of London could not believe" their eyes when they read the case at an hour when most people would; bo partaking of a late breakfast. _ Tney were overjoyed. ■ It was a Daniel com©,to judgment, and asthey motored down.to their offices their, Hitacrto overy man's.; hand, or rathorJ every mans wit and cunning, had- been? raised against them. The ablest heads of I the racecourse, tho Stock Exchange and tho bar-parlour had planned every day year in and year out, "to make it hot" tor tho starting-price mem The wonder was how they survived. -But they have done so, and yesterday morning they looked smiling out of their, fur coats as they C s me ■ < S,, tl "J n - ;to battle against fearful odds J.ho decision was what a humbler' mem . b ?, r ?f tho betting profession, termed - a littlesbit of all right** for tho starting- ' price offices.' .-, y , ■ ,' ■ , But as the day woro on the joy in the oihecs diminished, and at 3.20, when betting in London on Warwick races''had ceased, a very snorting proprietor-of a large office oftered to lay\Cloo to J!l that tho decision will not «;tniid. "It would legalise.betting," ho argued: "Every time r wo arc not paid an'hccount, wo could procecd for a rcturnjlof. the sums we had paid previously alid.asa' bookmaker's clients generally refuse'to paybccaiiso they are.unwilling,,not because'they are unable, wo, should noon get a, lot of our own bade. I have never-sued a client Vi r n iL d ■ ' and bad *obts average £10,000 per annum. . ..■',-■;' ..', ■ : ,;•;,-. ,Too. Good to be True, ' . "No, no," added tho' bookmakor,. "this decision is too good to be true. : If tho defendant would not appeal against it tho anti-gambhng society would stop in and help him to. do it." -'.:. ■ .. At 5 p.ni. all tho &arly rhornine":"joydiy, was over. All satisfaction had flown put of the office windows, for no one with'm behoved that England had reached an era, of such prosperity that a book-' maker could suo every man who pleaded tho Gaming Act for. a return of all moneys paid him previous to an act of defaulting. Ihings, they think, must bo as they .were: and betting must bo a matter of trust, or cash. '•,.. '•■ ■' '.■■"■ >■ Another director of a great : startingprice concern, which manages'to prosper even if it has to write off jiiIO.OOO in a year for bad debts,-said the decision be* wildcred him.: /'lf it holds good, which, alter a morning's sad reflection, I very much'doubt, it will' protect its against the man who would plead the Gaming Act ", ..::,;'■,.-, ■ ..-.(,'■■■ ;■,'".:■. :