The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 26, 1933. THE GAMBLING INSTINCT.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 304, 26 December 1933, Page 6

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun.

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 26, 1933. THE GAMBLING INSTINCT.

For the cause that lacks assistance. For the wrong that needs For the-future in the distance, And the good that toe can do

It is evident that the gambling instinct is inherent in a large number of people, and that if it is suppressed in one form it is apt to break out in another. It is, therefore, a question for consideration whether some form of State lottery, such as obtains in many Continental countries, would not be preferable to art unions, as at present conducted, and to the numerous- outside sweeps, in subscriptions, to which so much, money leaves the country to benefit other lands. "Art unions receive subscriptions out of all proportion to the money returned in pr/izes, and the odds against any one ticket obtaining a prize are enormous. In any lottery of this kind a large percentage of the money subscribed ought to go in prizes, whereas in some art unions less than 20 per cent has been so returned. Nor have the objects for' which some art unions have been sanctioned been such as to deserve assistance of this kind. There is no reason, for instance, why sports clubs should rely on outside aid for their upkeep and development. Governments have seldom been consistent in their attitude towards gambling, and our own Government is no exception. The Post Office is used to transmit betting telegrams, and the revenue from these is considerable. Yet the papers are not allowed to publish the totalisator dividends lest such publication should foster the gambling instinct. Chinese are prosecuted for playing their own games of chance among themselves, while bridge and other card games are played in clubs and private houses for high stakes without let or hindrance. There is a good deal of hypocrisy in our attitude towards gambling in all its forms. Partly this is due to the fact that no really satisfactory definition of gambling has been forthcoming, and partly to the fact that to endeavour to stamp out by the rigour of the law every form of betting or gaming for money stakes would be regarded by a large number of. people as an interference with liberty. What ia wanted is 'some commonsense treatment of the problem of betting, sweepstakes and similar forms of gambling. At present we have neither common sense nor consistency. Betting may be regarded as a regrettable propensity, but to many people it is a form of enjoyment, and they contend that within reasonable limits it is better for them to have some chance of gain than to look forward without hope to a life of poverty. It is impossible to suppress the instinct entirely, and 'many people feel that it might be better to have State lotteries rather than State connivance at illegalities in this direction which it cannot or does not care to suppress.