T.A.B. Control

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27210, 30 November 1953, Page 10

T.A.B. Control

The Government acted wisely in deleting from the Gaming Amendment Bill the clause inserted by the Statutes Revision Committee which would have permitted the Government to set up an authority to oversee the Totalisator Agency Board—a new agency to license agencies established by the agency board. This ponderous bit of bureaucratic nonsense was added to the bill after the Statutes Revision Committee had heard representations from the National Council of Churches. Whatever complaints were made against the Totalisator Agency Board, they have not been upheld by the Government; for the Minister of Internal Allairs declared that the board “ had honoured every “ undertaking it had given the Gov- " ernment. Members of the board “were men of undoubted integrity, “ who had observed the letter of the “ law and the agreement entered “ into with the Government ”. Though the Government must, of course, take final responsibility for the proper conduct of an undertaking of this kind, the legislation that established the Totalisator Agency Board and empowered it to conduct off-course betting in terms of the national referendum also gave the Government adequate powers of supervision. The Government is now taking additional powers to make regulations for the detailed control of totalisator agencies. But for the Minister’s declaration to the contrary, this would seem to imply some dissatisfaction with the board’s control of agencies up to date, for the qualifying clause, “after con- “ sulfation with the Totalisator “Agency Board”, might be ft very thin coating of sugar on the pill The Government would have been better advised to wait until the need arose before taking these additional powers. All the evidence suggests that they are no more* than a sop to the persons and organisations who, no doubt from the best of motives, disapprove of the offcourse betting system and seek to limit its extension. In doing so, they are seeking to thwart the ■deariy-exprearod will of the elee- .

torate; and Parliament. and the Government should keep this dearly in mind. No doubt there is too much gambling in New Zealand. There always has been; and probably there always will be. In effect, the people of the Dominion decided by a substantial majority that they preferred their gambling to be done legally and openly rather than illegally and secretly. The Totalisator Agency Board was intended by statute and by the vote of the electorate to supplant the illegal bookmakers; and it is doing so. It can go on doing so only so long as it provides legal facilities for betting comparable with the illegal facilities which are now gradually being stamped out. The critics of the Totalisator Agency Board are, in general, persons who would like to suppress all betting, legal and illegal. The Government should not go too far in encouraging them, unless it is prepared to take the responsibility of setting aside the public’s verdict in the 1949 referendum for the public’s good.