RACING SWEEPS.

Waikato Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2033, 18 July 1885, Page 3

RACING SWEEPS.

Our Te Awanwtu correspondent writes :— Sweeps' and consult itions on races aic now declared to lie illegal, and all persons endeavouring to piomote such things will be severely punished. It is quite light that gambling should be put dow 11 by law. but bid as sweeps aie considered by somp, it is worse to have money sent out of the _^hlony to be gambled .\\v.\y in sweeps got flp in othpr colonies ; for th nigh the cannot bo openly adveitiscd, a gioat deal deal can be dojits l)y means of agents, and persons of ;i specul itne tin n of niiiid will hud a mean-, of investing in Austiahan sweeps, many of which aie only bogus ati.vus, got up for the deliberato purpose of .swindling. No racing club of any landing would seek to augment its funds bv means of sweep-, yet we often sen them got up under a highflown title, and piofessmg to be under the patronage of a racing thib th.it exists no wheie oiu«ide the imagination of the ia~-cil who has his name at the foot of the advei tt«ement. They aie tiups -et to catch tlu innocent, and b.uted \ery attractively. I see no nioie harm in a rae ug sweep got up by a. man of known integrity than in a lottery at a ba/a.u in aid of aoino church, the promoters of which would denounce the former as sinful. Few, if any, object to the totahsator, and a sweep pioperly con ducted i« no worse. In the former a man backs Ins fancy, while in the lattei he stands tho same chance of winning as any other iiibsci iber. Tho bazaar lotteries aie styled " a«t unions," in which theie no blanks, but frequently the whole of the prizes are not woith half the money sub sen bed m ticket".