THE GOVERNMENT AND GAMBLING.

Taranaki Daily News, 30 July 1920, Page 4

THE GOVERNMENT AND GAMBLING.

The Government has set out on the virtuous course of suppressing the bookmaker, but, in our opinion, will only succeed in entrenching him more securely than ever. In the Gaming Bill now before the House, tlie punishment for breaches of the law are made particularly severe, in respect both of the bookie and the bettor, Though the Bill ia not yet through the Upper Hou9e, it is likely that offenders will have tie right to bo tried by jury, as indeed should be the case where imprisonment or" a heavy monetary fine is involved. Does the Government seriously think that any jury in New Zealand would ever bring in a verdict of guilty in such cases? Ministers ought to know human nature better than that. It will be a case of the Anti-Shouting Act over again. No one takes that absurd law seriously, nor obeys it. And because of the drastic nature of the penalties, few men will be found in this imperfect world to approve of the conviction of a bookie or a customer. It is foolish for the Government to enact any law that will not be, or cannot be, enforced. It only serves to bring the law as ft whole into contempt. Few people outside the Legislature can see any difference morally between' betting on the, course or off the course. Yet the new Bill says that a man is a criminal who wages a few shillings with a bookie, but is quite a respectable citizen if .he bets pounds on the tote. The thing is illogical, and all the penalising laws in the world will not alter the position. If the Government is sincere in its desire to reduce gambling, then let it propose the abolition of both tote ani bookie. It dare not, however, for big interests would be against it. The same interests are pushing the Government t() wipe out the bookie and confine all the betting to the machine. It will succeed only in giving impetus to the movement to abolish the tote. The Government periodically holds up its hands in holy horror against the increase in gambling, and some years ago enacted a law preventing newspapers from publishing the tote figures. At the same time the Government acts as a sleeping partner in the racing, drawing something like £413,000 last year as its share of the profits from the gambling it professes to condemn. It is about time the Government acted with more consistency and less hypocrisy. One thing is certain, all the laws a sapient Parliament might promulgate will not eradicate the gambling spirit. That can only come,' and then "but gradually, from the exercise of moral influence, precept and example.