THE GAMBLING SPIRIT.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 159, 7 July 1926, Page 6

THE GAMBLING SPIRIT.

Bishop Sprott's strictures on gambling in his charge to his diocesan synod are timely. He attributes the growing dislike for hard, steady work in Britisii countries to the prevalance of the gambling spirit. Under the specious pretext of art unions, thousands of people have been led to believe that by the investment of a shilling or half-a-crown, they could acquire a sum of money greater than anything they could hope to gain by years of steady work. The familiar slogan of the promoters of these art unions has been, "Somebody must win, why nt you?" The answer is simple. The dice are loaded against the investor of the shilling or the half-crown, in many cases the public lias bought tickets to ten times the vtiluc of the prizes distributed. This has meant odds of something like half a million to one against any individual purchaser of a single ticket winning the big prize.

The expenses of promotion have been as high as 40 per cent of all money received, and the promotion of these unions has lKM.ome a business, and n very profitable business at that. The purposes for which these art unions have been promoted have seldom l>cen of any public interest. For the most part they have been for the benefit ot various sporting bodies. Those who have bought tickets have in the majority of cases been actuated solely by the desire for gain, and frequently have had only the vaguest idea of the purpose for which the art union was ostensibly organised.

As a gamble Tattersalls is preferable from the point of view of those wlio purchase tickets. The whole of the money received, less 10 per cent, is divided amongst the investors. The same cannot be said of many of the art unions. In these the value of the prizes bears only a small relation to the amount subscribed. That, however, is a matter for the investors alone. What concerns the whole community is the bad effect of this wholesale spread of the gambling spirit. It is difficult to define with precision the exact difference between gambling and legitimate business risks. In a sense everybody who accepts interest on money beyond the rate paid by gilt-edged securities incurs a certain element of risk. But this is a very different thing from a widespread invitation to all and sundry to invest a shilling or two on the chance of acquiring thousands of pounds. The art unions have done more to encourage the spirit of gambling than even the racecourse, because their net has been cast so widely. ,-\s Bishop Sprott remarks, it is idle" to expect that gambling or any other vice can be entirely suppressed by legislation. Attempts in this direction have not been encouraging. But legislation need not countenance and legalise a non-produc-tive way of raising funds, in which the expenses are out of all proportion to the results achieved, and which tends to demoralise the working spirit of the people.