BETTING SHOPS IN SYDNEY.

Hokitika Guardian, 14 August 1920, Page 4

BETTING SHOPS IN SYDNEY.

HOW THE SYSTEM IS WORKED

SYDNEY, August 4. An enormous amount of gambling goes on sub rosa in Sydney. Bets made outside a racecourse in this State are illegal, but there is probably more money passing in bets made oft the race-courses than on. The betting-shop evil has grown until to-day it repiesents practically an open defiance ol the law, and provides the police with their best problem and reproach. Betting shops plied their business openly in Sydney, and did a roaring business, until 1906, when legislation closed the shops and drove the punters to tho racecourses. But the system did not work. There was a demand for betting accommodation by thousands who could not get to the racecourses, and so the agent system came gradually into operation. There is a central office with telephones, to which only members of the staff have admission. There is a large staff of agents, who have regular beats in the city and suburbs. They are at certain places at certain times, and all the wise people desirous of betting meet them at flic nearest point on the beat. A few words are spoken, money passes quickly and “slitlily,” and the agent walks away. The bet is booked. The money thus col lccted is taken to' the central office, the bet is recorded, and the agent draws his commission, generally 2s 6d in the £ on the total amount brought in. These bets are all at “starting prices.” and the winners receive their money from the agent on his next visit. The i starting price is the price stated m the “Sydney Morning Herald”— apropos of which some strange stones might ho told of attempts to “rig” the old paper’s reports. This agent system has developed in an extraordinary manner. Every corner of Sydney now appears to he canvassed by an anny of very shrewd and not very desirable 'non-producers. Their heats now extend to factories and offices, and large sums, got together by both men and women, await them on

the days of their regular call. They also act as agent collectors for Tattersail’s sweeps. Both the betting simps and tbe sweeps are definitely illegal, but they seem to be tolerated all round. The Post Office provides the shop with telephones, and the sweep people with postal services—and neither could exist without these facilities. The police declare that sub rosa betting is carried out in a manner that makes it impossible of detection. But the evil has grown to that extent now, that it seems likely that the police will bo forced to test their own theory in operations on a big scale against the shops.