BETTING AND HUMAN NATURE:

Press, Volume LXXXV, Issue 25732, 18 February 1949, Page 3

BETTING AND HUMAN NATURE:

CAN THEY BE SEPARATED? This country has tried for 40 years to prohibit betting away from the course on horse races. As everyone knows, thp only effect of making offcourse betting illegal has been to produce an almost unbelievable network of illegal bookmakers and their agents. It is a fundamental human characteristic to bet on a horse race, and those who cannot attend the course have always found a means of backing their fancies elsewhere. The Racing and Trotting Conferences, on the premise that off-course betting will not be eliminated by making it illegal, evolved a Scheme of legalised offcourse betting through local agencies of the Totalisator. The Scheme has many advantages, not the least of which will be- the elimination of the grave social danger of otherwise lawabiding citizens breaking the law and seeing nothing wrong in doing so. After due deliberation the Scheme has been recommended to the Government by the Royal Commission on Gaming and Racing, and in consequence you are asked to vote on the issue on March 9 next. A vote “FOR THE PROPOSAL” will be a vote for law and order.—[lssued by authority N.Z. Racing and Trotting Conferences.] i Advt.