IS THE GAME UP?

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 301, 15 May 1911, Page 7

IS THE GAME UP?

| THE BOOKMAKER. STATEMENT BY A DETECTIVE. A Christchurch Press reporter in his wanderings about the city noticed that the crowds of reputed bookmakers which used to congregate at certain points had decreased very largely. In fact, there were very few of them to be seen about. Perhaps two or three might be seen talking together, but casual watching did not give rise to the idea that they were carrying on their old business. Certainly there was no furtive glancing at race programmes or any pencilling of wagers. To all outward appearance they were ordinary citizens who seemed to find time hanging on their hands. Being curious as to whether these men still carried on the business of bookmaking, and where all the others of the fraternity of the bag and pencil had gone, the pressman asked the Chiet Detective. The reply he received was most reassuring.

"You may say definitely," said Chief Detective Bishop, "that there has never been so little, betting in Christchurch as there is at the present time. Street betting is absolutely a thing of the past. You may walk about town any day, and I do not think you will see any wager made. The force as a whole, and my department in particular, keeps a very strict lookout, and the fact that there have not been any prosecutions shows that we have noticed nothing. Of course, it is possible that men are still bookmaking, but if they are they are doing it privately and wagering only with persons of substance with whom they are well acquainted. This is a matter concerning which it is extremely difficult to make any move. Even if we had suspicions, it would be next to impossible to find any evidence to justify them. Empowered by the Gaming Act, we were ready to clear the streets of bookmakers, and we have accomplished that result. The bookmakers themselves recognised that game was up." Asked as to what the men who had been bookmakers were doing now, the Chief Detective said that a number of them had set up in business for themselves —some of them as land agents, others as hairdressers, for example. A few had retired on their profits, and a number had left the country. Two men who were closely in touch with sporting matters rather dispelled the view that things were all as they should be. They showed charts setting out the prices that a bookmaker was willing to give touching the result of a race at Ashlmrton, and a species of let-ter-card sent out by another firm. Such charts, they said, were sent out to their clients by certain bookmakers before the date of almost every meeting of importance." Further than this, the bookmakers had known places of call, where they could be seen by those who wished to do business with them. They had also places where messages relative to gambling transactions could be left with a certainty that they would he received. It was idle to say that the betting evil had been scotched. On the day of a race it would be possible for a known man to make a wager respecting the result in Christchurch. He might bet any amount from half-a-crown to fifty pounds. What could be said safely was that promiscuous street betting and betting on the racecourses themselves had been suppressed) In the face of the charts they .showed, and the statements that would be made by almost any racing man were he asked, it would be futile to deny that bookmakers still plied their work, but they now did it jfurtiV'Cly, and it probably would be diffi-eulfc-for a stranger to transact business. That was all that could be said regarding the change effected by the Gaming Act.