THE BOOKMAKER AGAIN

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1949, 5 January 1914, Page 6

THE BOOKMAKER AGAIN

If TENTACLES OF THE OBDS-^ ||||i| f ; A& ;:,LAYER.; ,-....,& . ;.•s'" ,|;|S||ff ff'lßt .Quiz.];;' -!jjC.f "'■ iiSTho'exteiit.bf gambling in Now'Zealand''is, not a new subject. It is.only evergreen. Tho newest phase -. of tho -.subject is tho almost complete failure of , : th» police to cheek tho operations of bookmakers.; The bulk of tho bookmakers'. ' operations are, of course, on .:horse-racing.' Occasional betting- on local race meetings, which the racegoer ■could attend in parson,' would not be an ; evil .of any extent,' not necessarily an "evil at ail. It is'the betting on'almost all-meetings, local and outside,, almost all the year round, which docs so much harm. ■ '~ To end tho habit of betting on races' almost daily New Zealand must dispose ■'■of tho bookmakers, who in each centre .of population afford facilities for gambling on. races all over the .'country. While wo have bookmakers we will have daily betting. When the bookmaker is nothing but a figure of tho past betting will find a more reasonable level. To stamp out widespread betting will not be easy. It is not impossible No ono knows exactly how difficulty it is, although tho police have some idea of the difficulties. Hut no one has made, or seen made, hero a systematic attempt to crush out tho bookmakers. The process of becoming rid of them is twofold. There is the necessary Act of Parliament, and there is tho enforcement of .the Act by tho police. In. 1907 Parliament passed a Gaming Bill which made it an offence for any racing club to uso a double machine and which abolished, the licensing of bookmakers by racing clubs.- Up to this time all sorts of bookmakers who had enough money to pay tho license Tees frequented tho racecourses and infested tho cities and towns. Welshing ■ was common at races, and "poorer and wiser" punters were not rarities. Alter the 1007 Bill.got through, some bookmakers left the country, and some .enthusiastic supporters of the. measure informed tho world that bookmakirrg in Now Zealand was killed. That estimate of the situation was premature, Bookma-king is as a -'.business to-day as before. Ono reason for this is that a serious mistake was made in abolishing the tatiilisator double-machine. Tho double-machine supplied something which was in 'considerable demand, and when this means of backing doubles was swept away tho bookmakers stepped into the breach, and laid doubles at great profit and' very extensively. Double betting by bookmakers was common before the 1907 enactment, but tho point is that now double betting is the bookmaker's principal line of operation : with quite a number tho only line. , They lay doubles on every race meeting. in Now Zealand, and the froodom with which they work is (in view of the laws of the laud) remarkable. They issuo what aro known as doublecards, and there aro cards for every day on which thero aro races in some part of the Dominion, These cards aro posted and otherwise distributed all over tho country. In order that a client would know from which bookmaker a card had come, every pencillcr adopted an alphabetic sigu, A hottor's mail would bring him an envelope containing a double-chart marked with the sign "0.D.," and accompanied by the card of "J. Brown, Woolbroker, Kox Number , Wellington." A few bookmakers were prosecuted; and tho charts, with signs and tho woolbroker cards played.a part in the prosecutions. Tho operators were forced to bo hioro wary. Tho signs disappeared from the double-cards, and in many instances Mr. Woolbroker, with the number of his box at the G-P.O. vanished. However, the daily post still carries its burden of double-cards, and the bookmaker from whom the invitation to bet comes is distinguishable by tho colour of tho card.

The business done in double-betting is tremendous, and so lucrativo to the bookmakers' that some of-'tho fraternity will not bet except on doubles. The odds offered are generally made to look attractive, and tho temptation to bet is great; but tho odds are, nevertheless, decidedly in favour of tho hookmakers. A big amount of betting through bookmakers is done in Wellington. Ono firm of operators are believed to employ several clerks in an office which is within a stone's throw of Lambton Quay, and another bookmaker's office is situated almost opposite, tho General Post Office. Thero is a. largo number of recognised bookmakers m tho city, but double-betting is not confined even to them, and men who work during tho day may bo found in the streets at night making a book of "£5 to Is." The double-cards sent out bear no imprint, which means that they have to be printed surreptitiously, and may mean, too, that a secret printcry has to bo maintained. Ono book' maker who does not run an office, or keep a big staff scuds. largo . piles of envelopes out to have tho addresses of clients all over tho country typewritten on them. Cards are sent into warehouses and shops, and clerks and salesmen receive them at their work. They are taken to • tho waitresses in restaurants, and posted to girls and married, women. It is not uncommon to find boys and youths studying them. All these nro among tho customers of tho bookmakers, tut tho sheep who yields the heaviest fleece is tho labouring man. The secretary of the, Racing Conference has written to, police headquarters about tho way in which betting through bookmakers is allowed to go on without much apparent 'interference from the police, and racing men. have pointed out that tho iniltieiieo of the bookmakers is sometimes - responsible for foul riding and other bad practices. Theso complaints are quite ' deserved, for it is common property that' Lambton Quay is almost alive with bookmakers on important race days. Sir George Clifford, president of tho New Zealand Racing Conference, lias ■ pi> licly summed up the bookmakers as "the curso of tho tnrf." Downfalls through constant gambling aro under our notice from time' to timo. '■ In 'Wellington quite recently thero was tho case of a manager of a jewellery business, whoso lapse was to tho extent, of about £240, and later a Blenheim telegraph operator and a storekeeper came under the public eye.

Tho General Post Office is now tho channel through which tho bookmaker* do their business. They havo private letter-boxes, and tho postal authorities surely know who and what .they are. Ycfc tho institution delivers their letters, Furthermore, it distributes their double cards. , With ono State institution doing little to harass them,- and another State institution giving them tho greatest assistance, tho bookmakers are thriving. If tho polieo cannot sco tho hold tho bookmakers havo, tho police could never have passed tho eye-sight test. ' I havo strong reason for believing that tho police will very soon be spurred on to a vigorous campaign against illicit betting, but to attain success ail tho efforts of tho past will have to be- eclipsed. Extensive systematic operations will havo to bo conducted ably and rigorously. A compre-V-nsive attack planned and controlled by ono specially-chosen man would bear results, which would astonish a public that,-lias grown to regard tlio bookmakers as immovable. Lone-hand efforts are of no permanent value. Cleverly done, they merely illuminate a fewweak spots in -tho defence, and ilhistrato to tho unbelieving that tho fraternity are not invulnerable. Also, some of. flnim reflect great credit on whoever them out. v#That is polieo business. Parliament 'ought, to consider the question of tho restitution of the. doublo totttlisator.