“POLES APART”

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25134, 15 March 1947, Page 10

“POLES APART”

SPORTSMANSHIP AND BETTING

EVIDENCE OF METHODIST MINISTER (P.A.) WELLINGTON, March 14. “Gambling and true sportsmanship

are almost as the poles apart. If gambling comes in at the doors true sport flies out of the window,’’ said the Rev E. O. Blamires, a Methodist Minister giving evidence on the influence of gambling on sport to the Gaming Commission. Gambling entering into sport, he claimed, tended to destroy the elements of true sportsmanship because its growth was often at the expense of honour. It weakened team spirit. It served the individual selfishly at the expense of the interest of the group. It had monetary gain as its chief end. In his view it depended in large measure on the use of chance as the basis of monetary reward. He once attended a wrestling match in the Town Hall of another city in company with a friend who had previously been frequently engaged to referee matches in Australia. This friend told him how the match would result add that as a referee had frequently known in advance exactly by what margin one wrestler would win. Referring to the Dominion Sportsmen's Association witness, he said that in his lifetime experience of sport, no association of genuine sportsmen—men who played games and administered them—had ever advocated gambling on sport. The licensing of bookmakers could not be for the good of any sport and would almost certainly be to the detriment of every sport on which gambling could be organised. Witness added that the captain of the New Zealand cricket team, Mr W. A. Hadlee, had asked him to state on his behalf that: “I am certain it will be a bad day for New Zealand sport if bookmakers _are allowed a free hand. Gambling must corrupt the spojt it touches. I am strongly opposed to any gambling sport, such as racing, being allowed to progress any further by a means dependent of gaming. Already, we have difficulty in filling cricket ranks on Saturday because of race meetings. The attraction is not the spectacle of horse racing but the possibility of making money. This is not the way to build a healthy nation of young athletes or to keep older men actively engaged in the development of youth.”