COMMISSION ON GAMING

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25161, 17 April 1947, Page 6

COMMISSION ON GAMING

APPLICATION BY HUNT CLUBS

BOOKMAKING DESCRIBED AS “VICIOUS”

(P.A.) AUCKLAND. April 18. An application that consideration be given to the claims ot five hunt clubs to” totalisator licences in the event of the commission recommending an increase in the number of licences, was made by Dr. A. McGregor Grant, president of the New Zealand Hunts’ Association, in a statement before the Gaming Commission.

At present the issue of totalisator licences to hunt clubs was limited to 16 annually, and this number had not been increased since 1920, said Dr. Grant. He emphasised that only by the additional income to be derived from the use of totalisator licences could hunt clubs hope to retain their identity. Districts in which the licences would be utilised—Eastern Southland, Mahia, Maramarua, Opotiki, and Wairarapa—could not be regarded as having a surplus of racing with totalisator facilities.

New Zealand already had two gambling schemes operating, a licensed Government system by machine totalisator, and the vicious unlicensed bookmaker, said the Rev. Dr. J J North, clergyman and college principal. He asserted that a country given to gambling was a country going straight into bankruptcy. The witness said he regarded gambling as antimoral, anti-social, and anti-reliigous. The ethical qualities of the act of gambling were discussed by Mr F. A. de la Mare, barrister, of Hamilton, who said the enforcement of the present law against gaming in New Zealand was shocking. This was due to the public demand for bookmakers and lack of integration in law enforcement. Corruption Alleged An allegation that there were corrupt racehorse owners in New Zealand who tried to dope horses, was made by Mr James Colin Gleeson to the Gaming Commission to-day. He cited the names of members of illustrious families overseas who, he claimed, bet with bookmakers. He recommended the licensing of off-course bookmakers. Mr Gleeson said the people he was referring to knew the calibre of the men with wnom they were betting. He suggested that there were persons of equal fidelity and integrity who could be licensed as bookmakers here. Mentioning racing cubs of which he is a life member, Mr Gleeson said he had won £23.000 in stakes. He contended that it was “not British” to compel the public to keep on breaking the law.

Cross-examined by Mr W. E. Leicester, for the Dominion Sportsmen’s Association, Mr Gleeson said he had never known corrupt practices by bookmakers, but he knew there were corrupt owners who tried to dope horses. Ninety per cent, of owners and committeemen of the clubs bet with bookmakers, he added.

Arthur Edward Court, a Christian Science practitioner, said he considered that gambling could be abolished by educating children against it, just as duelling had been abolished.