VAGRANTS AS BOOKMAKERS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 52, 26 March 1909, Page 4

VAGRANTS AS BOOKMAKERS.

"KIDINC THE ACT TO DEATH." Christchurch, Tuesday. ' Speaking of some of the men who are licensed as bookmakers by jockey clubs, a police officer said: "They have merely to collect money to pay the license fee and then they are at liberty to prey upon the public. They are given a legal standing- in the community. Formerly the police could- deal with these men as vagrants, and did so. .Now they camiut lie touched. they have a legal standing in the wjiiimuniiV. They are not without, lawful visible means of support. They are licensed bookmakers. A mail' who wants a license to trade as a second-hand dealer has to pass the ordeal of a strict .police examination into his character. There does not seem t») be any examination at all into the character of the applicant for a bookmaker's license. The only <iualilieatio-:i muiired is ability to pay the license fee. It look* as though some clubs wanted to ride the Act to death, and so disgust the public with the bookmakers ! that the totalisaUor will be allowud to I Ifavc a monopoly. of the racing busi- [ new."

ilr. 11. 10. Wuuklyn, secretary of the Canterbury Jockey Club, states (hat the police sometimes reported to the club that a man was of bad character, but unless they could show convictions against him the club could not refuse him a license.