THE GAMING ACT

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2072, 26 December 1907, Page 3

THE GAMING ACT

A LEGAL OPINION. v MANAWATU RACING CLUB’S CONDI LION S. A number of bookmakers have consulted Messrs. Wilford and Levi, Wellington, as to the legalit- of the conditions imposed by the Alanuwutu Racing Club for the licensing of bookmakers at its summer meeting, and the following letter has now been sent to the club:—‘■To the Secretary, Mhnaivntu Racing Club. Dear Sir, —Wo are instructed to write to you in reference to the conditions prepared by your club re licensing of bookmakers. • In regard to conditions Mo. 1 and - we have nothing to say except in our opinion the date fixed for the receipt of applications is remote. In regard to condition No. 3, no exception can be taken to it, and in regard to condition. No. 4, though it is admitted that your ciub has the power to require a fee of £5 a day for bookmakers' clerks, wo consider without any great concession your club might see its way to reduce that ice to, say, a nominal payment of os. In regard to condition No. 5, in widen you provide i- particular portion of a racecourse for bookmakers, we desire to point out that you have no such power under the statute. The license must bo to enter the ‘racecourse’ and there to carry on business as a bookmaker. Racecourse is defined in the Act of this year as ‘land which is used for race meetings.’ It therefore includes the whole place which is used for the meeting, and the license must authorise the carrying on of the business of a bookmaker on the whole place; the lawn and saddling paddock are certainly parts of tin* racecourse. While the bookmakers do not desire to have the right to carry on their business anywhere and everywhere, they certainly desire to protest agunst a club placing them m a position where they can do little or no business, especially in view of tile wording of the Act. The power of the club to make regulations is derived from section 34 in sub-clause 4. There is the power of absolute expulsion in tho case of public reserves; and no doubt, as far as private courses are concerned, a club may in certain cases exclude by regulation or mere resolution, but- it will be remembered after considerable litigation in the colony it lias been clearly established that even tho power of expulsion from reserves is limited. Thero is no suggestion in the Act that any condition can be imposed except the condition that the license shall be for such period as the club thinks fit, and that a fee may be charged, not exceeding £2O a. day; tlio license therefore is only subject to such condition. AVe admit, of course, that licensees would be bound to observe such reasonable regulations as apply to the public in general. . “In reference to condition No. 7, which states that no bookmaker ‘shall make .any bet on any race after the closing of the totalisutor for that race,’ we beg to point out that there is no clause in the Act which allows the making of. such a condition. Clause 33, sub-section 1, provides that no investment on tho totalisator shall -bo received ‘after the time notified by such club for the starting of such race’; it surely cannot be contended that this clause gives ia racing club power to impose condition No. 7, and if clause 33 does not give the power, there is no other clause in the Act which refers to the matter. In reference to condition No. 8, what is the necessity for it? The mere signing of a condition not to bet tote odds, if the betting of tote odds is illegal, will not affect the bookmakers one way or the other. In regard to clause No. 9, we desire to point out that although l it is perfectly fair to provide that a breach of any reasonable condition should he the ground for the forfeiture of licenses, the fact that a man had, say, a 5 b wager on a football match, though it is a breach of the Gaining Act, should not be sufficient to debar a. bookmaker from obtaining a license. We trust that vonr club will see its way clear to modify these conditions, for the bookmakers do not desire litigation, but rctlier to work amicably with - e stewards of each particular club. ’