OUTBREAK OF GAMBLING.

Taihape Daily Times, 21 August 1919, Page 7

OUTBREAK OF GAMBLING.

POdITION IN ENtx‘LAND. lu‘Vl:}N« J UV'hJN.LLh}o‘ A'h‘l<‘E;C’l‘l:.‘-D. ‘ The end of the war appears to have brought with it an extraordinary reviv.al of gambling; ‘indeed, the evil seems t-o be more pronounced than ever, says an English paper. Everywhere it is in »evidence_. One notices it in the streets of cities and towns, in the workshops, and when taking one’s walks in the country. «Where one per. son took a paper from the newsboy for the purpose of seeing the horse-racing reports, there now seems to be hundreds. A good sprinkling are demobilised soldiers! and the numbers are said to be largely swelled by people drawing They -out-of—work donation. The craze is also very great in city offices where young and old seem to be imbued with the get-rich-quick ideas of the war profiteer. _ _ While the war was on, of course, not only were millions of men out of the country, but racing was practically stopped, and there was less opportunity of seeing the effects of gambling, although it was known to be unusually active among the highly-paid munition workers. In the smaller towns around Manchester this was seen in the way people took to the fields and open spaces for the purpose of gambling with cards. Now that racing has started, the evidences of the practice of gambling are to be found more particularly in the streets.

CHILDREN AND GAMES OF , CHANCE. One astonishing feature of the craze is the number of juveniles, now receiving high wages, who indulge in games of chance, and one can‘ see groups of lads engaged in gambling passing not only small change, but Treasury notes in payment of their losses. There is no doubt that the influence of the soldiers has had -a great deal to do with this growth of juvenile. gzambling, for the condition -of things in the camps and in the trenches have encouraged men to look more to forms of excitement to pass their time. Men who never thought of risking money in this fashion before they joined the army have come back confirmed gamblers, and no doubt youths have been influeneedvby the easy way in which betting on horses -and card-playing particularly, have been talked about-. “

The gambling spirit, too, seems to have taken hold of women almost as strongly as men, and a police ofiicer stated that just recently, while «on the look out for a betting tout and taking cover in an entry, a child of ten came along, and, e.vidently4mistaking him for the tout, handed -him a. slip of -paper and 23/ to put on a certain horse. IA WOMEN’S SYNDICATE.

The child and her mother were interrogated by the police later, and it then came out that in the yard where they lived it was a regular practice of the women to have a. whip round on race days, subscribing sixpence a head. _After the money had been collected, a consultation was held .as to which horse the money should be put on. The total, which reacchd about 20/ or 25/, Was then handed over to the bookmaker. If the horse ‘did not {win, of course, the individual contribution was not thought -to b’é'Ta great Floss, but to have returned 4/ or 5/ l for each sixpence, no matter how often lthe losses occurred, was looked upon ‘ as money easily come by, and no doubt it greatly encouraged the women to impoverish themselves, and at the same time gradually initiate their children into habits of gambling, ~When one gets to the ring of towns outside_Manchester one finds a very cleplorable state of ‘things. In places like Ol3'dh.am and Rochdale,» anld. A~sh'to.u, gambling is carried on in secluded places—-—stone quarries, and places on the moors, and so forth, where large bodies of men can meet, and where scouts can keep them informed of thel approach of anyone suspected :of being 1 members of a police force. Only re~ cently a raid was carried out on" the moors near Oldham, during -the Working hours of the day, and -about 100 men were rounfled up.