THE GAMING BILL.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 13881, 4 November 1910, Page 6

THE GAMING BILL.

The Select Committee which has had r the Gaming Bill before it for some 3 weeks, has returned it to the House 3 with several important amendment's. ; The value of some of the alterations is > questionable, but in other respects the : Bill has -undoubtedly been improved. In - the original Bill, only those racing clubs i" authorised to use the totalisator were, i instructed to prevent the bookmaker !" from plying his calling on the racer course, a kindly provision which still 3 left it open to the bookmaker to frequent all non-totalisator meetings. The Committee has, however, closed these to him, by making it the duty of nil racing clubs;, without distinction, to stop bookmakers doing business on their courses. As the presence of bookmakers at coursing matches and pigeon shooting matches is also forbidden, the , "penciJlers" will bo thrown on a cold , ajid, to a' considerable extent, unsym- . pathetic world after the end of next January. No law is going to stop betting with bookmakers as long as a proportion of the public choose- to do their betting; in that way, but in its pre- i sf.nt shape tho Gaming Bill, with it* severely penal clauses, should go a good way towards discouraging the practice. The original clause limiting the issue of totalisator licenses in any year to 100 to racing clubs, and 22 to trotting clubs, has been knocked out, r.nd tho only limit that is now innipoeed , upon the number issued is the number of days on which the totalizator may be used, which has been raised from a total of 240 in tho year to 250. These are to be divided proportionately between the racing and trotting clubs, according to the number of days of racinrj each class enjoys this year. The effect of this provision depends upon the view taken by the commission which the Governor-in-Council may appoint to allocate'the licenses, as to the needs and merits of the metropolitan and tho country clubs. Thf; r.ionosal to allow newspapers to publish the investments .on the totalisator and the dividends, is a gratifying recognition of the stupidity of tho present prohibition, which not only infringes the liberty of tho Press, ■ but violates commonsense. If it is a crime for a newspaper to state tho amount of the investments on the various starters in a race, it must, by a parity of reason, be a crime to invest a pound on the totalisutor, and only a very few people go so far in their opposition to gambling to assert that that is a crime. The publication of the betting odds and dividends is, moreover, a protection to the public, since it imposes a check on swindling, 'by enabling stewards to note how an inconsistent runner has been backed. The existing veto is tho most childish concession to prejudice and ignorance, and the Government should have had the courage to provide in the original Bill tor its abolition, and not have left the task to the committee.