BOOKMAKERS

Auckland Star, Volume LXXV, Issue 275, 20 November 1944, Page 4

BOOKMAKERS

There is the class of people with the peculiar mental concept that , if the admitted abuses of gambling, drinking and other things they don't like were prohibited by legislation the world would be a much better place to live In. One of these is your correspondent, "Wee MacGregor." Prohibition, however much we may desire it, does not prohibit. We have seen 40 years of debauchery in no-license areas. I have never seen such drunkenness anywhere as exists in some of the mills in the King Country, a prohibited area, every week of the year. The experience of the United States adds further testimony. They voted the license back as the lesser evil. Bookmaking has been driven underground in this country, yet its devotees are just as numerous, or more so, on that account, and therefore being illegal it is described as criminal by Mr. Justice Northcroft. Would that he would define what is criminal about a man who is sought after by "clients," who runs grave risks to oblige them, pays out when he loses and asks no questions. Does he grab anyone by the shoulder in the public street and say, "Come in and back Landveyor, he's a sitter for to-day?" That would be touting, and tantamount to a crime. But nothing of the kind happens, and it is not the bookmaker's fault if some people are determined to do their money in. • J- ORR.