The Daily News. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 8. THE GAMING BILL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 179, 8 November 1910, Page 4

The Daily News. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 8. THE GAMING BILL.

The Select Committee to which the Gaming Biil was referred have sent it back to the House in a crippled condition. That the amendments are "important" there is no question. That there is no evidence of a sincere desire to ''put down" gambling is obvious. If the Bill as crippled passes into law, the State will provide the only medium by which it will be legal to gamble on a racecourse—the totalisator. If the Bill is passed the bookmaker will be wiped out as far as the public plying of his trade is concerned. He will not be welcome at sports meetings of any kind and will naturally and necessarily—since his clientele will bet whatever law operates—return to his tote shop, his cellar and the business that is used as a "blind" to his chief occupation. The amendments in regard to the wiping out of bookmakers and increased facilities for the totalisator simply mean that people on racecourses will be hound to make large bets with the machine, being debarred from making small bets with the "books." One must necessarily hold that if a 5s bet with a bookmaker on a racecourse is an evil to "be stamped out a £ 1 bet with a machine is a greater evil. The Bill as amended increases the number of days per year oh which totalisator permits may be issued from 240 to 250. This is presumably by way of reducing the gambling evil. If there is one form of gambling that is less harmful than another, it seems to be that by which friends or acquaintances make private wagers. This is to be "put down," for an amendment provides that "every person" who makes or offers to make a wager on a racecourse will be liable to a fine of not less than £2O and not more than £IOO. That is to say, if he is wicked enough to bet 2s 6d with a friend and not virtuous enough to invest with the machine, he will be fined or sent to gaol. The bookmaker as a public bettor is, in short, squelched for the benefit of the machine. A virtuous select committee anxious to assist the community to become a moral non-gambling one has made an amendment whereby cheques may be handed into the machine as investments. In order that the whole community, whether it has money or whether it lias not, may share in the benefit of these moral reforms, we suggest that payment "in kind" may also be accepted. Thus a farmer who has no cash in hand might buy a tote ticket with a" load of pumpkins or a sack of potatoes, There is no end to the mutual benefits that might be served out to the people, In the matter of making it illegal for youths under 21 to bet with the tote it is hoped that everybody will be obliged to carry birth certificates in his hat-band. If it is right and proper for John Smith, ager 22. to hand a cheque to the machine, it is upright and moral for William Jones, aged 20y 2 , to do likewise. The moral guardians behind the handles might also ask where the youths obtained the money with which to bet. As another means of uplifting humanity, the committee suggests that newspapers be again permitted to publish starting prices and tote dividends. The prohibition now existing has had the effect of preventing what was considered an evil. It was made for that purpose. It nas beer alleged nianv times that sectional inluene* tan be exerted on the authorities, and tnat alterations to the existing laws frequently do not represent the wishes of the general public. In these amendments to the Gaming Bill, there is strong evidence of the class bias and a condonance of gambling in all its forms, for it is quite obvious that under the proposed system the facilities for "investment" will be made much eas'ieß.