"HYPOCRISY."

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 112, 14 May 1935, Page 5

"HYPOCRISY."

BOOKMAKING ETHICS.

PUBLIC'S VIEW OF BETTING.

NEW ZEALAND GAMING liAWS.

(By Telegraph.—Own Correspondent.) GISBORNE, this day. The ethics of bookmaking were discussed in the Magistrate's Court yesterday during the hearing hefore Mr. E. L. Walton, S.M., of several prosecutions resulting from raids on alleged gaming houses following the making of bets by a constable from Wellington who had been detailed for this special duty.

"This offence," said Mr. J. S. Wauchop, counsel for Arthur /Owen, "is really_ caused by the fact that we have gaming laws that have not the support of the public. Many of the public are not in sympathy with them. We live in a state of utter hypocrisy. The public has its own betting machine in the totahsator and is also able to have an authorised gamble in almost every shop doorway in the way of art unions sanctioned by the Government. People want to bet, and when the Government has its own gambles they say, 'Why shouldn't we? . So long as we liave such conditions the law will be broken. It is wrong in law, but the people do not consider it is morally wrong."

Counsel urged the magistrate to take into account that whereaa a few years' ago the fashion was to fine bookmakers £100, business then was a great deal different from what it was to-day. Men who formerly bet in fivers or tenners now inside bets of half-a-crown, 5/, or 10/. The Magistrate: If you're going to talk about, fashions, I might remind you that the fashion to-day is to send bookmakers to gaol. After the magistrate had imposed a fine of £100, the police asked for the confiscation of the betting materials taken during the raid. The Magistrate: Does that mean that he nuiy be unable to pay out.

The Prosecutor: That is so. "Well, I don't think I can go as far as that," commented Mr. Walton. "Before materials are confiscated I think counsel should be allowed to make any necessary notes in order that the accused may meet his obligations. If he doesn't pay out he may make more than he would lose by a £100 fine."