COMMISSION ON GAMING

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25136, 18 March 1947, Page 6

COMMISSION ON GAMING

VIEWS OF CHURCH OF ENGLAND ATTITUDE TO ART UNIONS (P.A.) WELLINGTON, March 17. The views of the Church of England were presented to the Royal Commission on Gaming to-day in the form of a statement by the public and social affairs committee of the church. The statement was read by the secretary of the committee (Dr. John Nicol). Dr.* Nicol explained that the committee had been authorised by General Synod to present the church’s views. The committee had been in touch with other churches which had presented a combined statement, and was in general agreement with their views. It recognised that gaming was not a subject on which a binding pronouncement had been made by the church, and that therezexisted among members a variety of opinion. If recognised, too, that the problem was complicated by the association of the biukof modern gambling with sport of great antiquity. On the other hand, there was no doubt that the leaders of the Church of England had declared themselves emphatically against the gambling habit arising from the desirg for easy gain, and leading to excessive love of excitement and to • instability. Gambling on horse races, in the committee’s opinion, passed beyond all reasonable limits of moderation when sums totalling as much as £940,000 were put through the machine at a single metropolitan four-day meeting, especially when it was considered that all this must have been additional to the huge volume of illegal betting related to the same meeting. The committee viewed with concern the increasing revenue derived by the State from racing, and would be still more concerned if the State were to exploit gambling as a source of new revenues.

A notable feature of the. totalisator and of alluvial gold art unions was that third parties reaped a financial harvest from their operations. The more that members of the public gambled, the greater were the revenues racing and trotting clubs, and to persons engaged in organising art unions, or in selling art union tickets.

Third Party Profit The committee advocated the elimination, or reduction, as far as practicable, of third party profit from gaming. It recognised that reforms in the gaming law might well be called for, but found it extremely difficult to advocate specific refdYms because of the fear that provision- for any new legal facilities for betting might simply mean a further increase in total investments.

The comntfttee favoured reasonable limitation orthe number of totalisator permits granted to racing and trotting clubs, and desired to see race days restricted, except for very special local reasons, to Saturdays and public holidays. Race meetings conducted nn ordinary working days must contribute towards unsettlement in industry. The committee looked with <isfayour on the practice of financing charitable causes by proceeds derived from gambling, because it feared that good causes might become a pretext for permitting or encouraging a social evil. If alluvial gold art unions as commonly conducted in New Zealand were regarded from the viewpoint of the investor they were found e to give a very poor return. Reference to the New Zealand Year Book showed that only 25 to 30 per ceht. of rhe gross takings were returned to investors as prizes. If they were regarded primarily as a mechanism for raising funds to aid charitable objects the mechanism was seen to be extremely costly. In 1943-44. for example, net proceeds of 12 art unions amounted to. but commission on sales and expenses amounted £68,605, apart altogether from prizes and lottery duty. The net proceeds always seemed to be less than half the gross takings. If social services or worthy institutions required public support the committee felt that this should be given by means which did not divert a large share of the contributors’ money into the pockets of third persons.