“DECIDED MENACE”

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 739, 12 August 1929, Page 11

“DECIDED MENACE”

bookmakers supported BY CHURCHES

INCLINATION to bet inherent

ClataiES that bookmakers were "a decided menace” and yet were really being supported by the churches, Sir ydwin Mitchelson, president of the Auckland Racing Club, passed the following comment on the opposition to t l, e Gaming Bill at the annual meeting •his afternoon: ■lt is somewhat difficult to uuder„tand the attitude taken up by some the churches in opposing the Gaming Bill.” he sai| l, "for, if they took the trouble to make inquiries in a broadminded spirit, they would discover that the evil they profess to find in betting really arises from the operations of the bookmakers, who are a decided menace and are more worthy tbe opposition instead of what, at present, really amounts to the support of the churches. 'Bookmakers have increased in numner in the Dominion and have for some years past been reaping j great harvest owing to the tact that money cannot be telegraphed for investment on the tctalisator. The churches should f et their attention to the elimination of the bookmakers, who do so much harm to the community by encouraging betting on credit—the real cause of the troubles in which young men become involved in this and every uther country, and which, with ita compulsory cash system, the totalisator does not bring about. THE LEGITIMATE CHANNEL "I hold that while betting is legalised it should be directed to its legitimate channel, the totalisator. The inclination to bet is inherent in every race and can only be destroyed or abolished voluntarily by every person determining to forgo and stifle those tendencies which have been inherited and followed throughout the centuries. “Here I would like to express the hope that recent disclosures in the Press of the dubious methods pursued by bookmakers may soon serve to disillusion those who do business with them, and that the result will be for the benefit of racing and racing institutions. PART OF MAN’S MAKE-UP “In conclusion, I would like to give you an extract from a special article that appeared in the London ‘Evening Standard’ of June 5 last, and which seems to me quite apropos: ‘The man who does not make a bet either th.nks that gambling is inherently sinful, or else suffers from some other eccentricity which separates him from his fellows. There is no eccentricity in failing to find racing a very exhilarating form of entertainment. There are plenty of amusements for us all. and each one of us is entitled to choose that which he prefers to the exclusion of all others. But there is something eccentric in the man who remains completely and perpetually indifferent to what so many of his countrymen find an absorbing pastime. It is part of the mental make-up of a full man, and a human man, to be able to take an interest at least in all the great sports which delight our people—in the Derby, in the cup final, in a Rugger international, in a test, match, in the Wimbledon tournament, in the fight for a boxing championship. . . ”