"ILLEGITIMATE BETTING."

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10218, 20 April 1911, Page 4

"ILLEGITIMATE BETTING."

Commenting on a" recent decision of Mr H. W. Bishop, S.M., at Christchurch, in a totalisator case, the Lyttelton Times says:— The case itself draws attention once more to the prevalence of the gambling evil in our midst. In those circles where sporting people move it is well-known that it is almost as easy to make a bet with a bookmaker at totalisator odds now as it was ten years ago, despite the legal abolition of what is paradoxically known as "the fraternity." The method of procedure is cunningly cloaked and hedged about with elaborate precautions, although the ingenuity displayed is delightfully sim- ! pie in its ultimate purpose. The police are just as well acquainted with the procedure as wo are ourselves, but they naturally find great difficulty in securing sufficient evidence to warrant a prosecution. Still, the task is by no means an impossible one, and tli? point of weakness in the existing sdieme upon which they might reasonably concentrate their attention is the middleman who lies between the 'bookmaker and his clients. It is of little use to drag the bookmaker into court. He, as a rule, is a pachydermatous person who has no dread of publicity. Failing the punishment of the bookmaker and his touts the police might very well turn their attention to the bettors. Unless we are mistaken the Gaming Act of last session makes it just as much an offence for a person to bet with a bookmaker as it is for a bookmaker to lay the odds, A few prosecutions" of bookmakers' clients, even if they failed in their direct object, would prove a very salutary lesson to a large number of betting men, who, otherwise responsible and respected citizens, appear, through that curious moral kink that pertains to gambling, to regard it rather as smart business than as an offence to deliberately circumvent the gaming'laws.