FOOTBALL BETTING

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1388, 14 March 1912, Page 6

FOOTBALL BETTING

IS IT COMMON? STRINGENT STEPS TO BE TAKEN. Speaking at the meeting of tho Wellington Eugby Union delegates last night, Mr. D. Weir said ho was sorry to sco that there was no mention in the annual report of tho fact that betting was on the increase. It was'quite a common thing now for sums of money to bo wagered on matches. Mr. S.-Brown: "If you know of this, why don'tyou, as a delegate, bring the matter before tho union , in a proper way?" '... Mr. Weir said ho wis doing s>. The timo had arrived when something should 1)0 dono to safeguard the gauie. So far, tho players had nqt been got at, but when a man stood to loso hundreds of pounds over a game, the players might, in a weak moment, succumb to. temptation. Mr. Cr. Lusk: "They've tried for years and failed." Mr. Weir , replied that it was well to look ahe.id. He did not know why bookmakers should bo allowed on the union's grounds at all.' They were an undesirablo class of peoplo. Mr. Sweeney at this stage asked if the speaker was in order. The chairman ruled that ho was. Professor Hunter on Professionalism. Professor Hunter, in touching on the question of betting, said it was a sad thing, though it had its humorous side, to find delegates coining down to the meeting and lamenting the betting that went on, and then, in the same breath,' admitting that a team had been kept on tour a day longer than was necessary, because it had won matches.. Ho referred to a statement by Mr. Little regarding the southern tour. Professor Hunter said that if Mr. Little's remarks wero correct, it was clear that the members of the team had become professionals. No organisation had a right to keep a team on tour a' day longer than was necessary. It was a matter for inquiry by the New Zealand Union. After Midnight. ' The question was dropped'for the, timo being, but came up again after midnight, when Mr. Weir suggested that bookmakers be not allowed on Athletic Park. Mr. Dawson: They don't exist. The chairman: Are you going to movo a resolution? Mr. Weir said he would move that bookmakers be refused admittance to Athletic Park. Mr. Sweeney: There are no bookmakers. Mr. Weir retorted that they only had to look up the evidence given by the various Inspectors of Police before tho To.talisator Commission to know that bookmakers'still existed: . . • . •■ . Mr. Atkinson stated that ho had been on the look-out one.Saturday to seo if betting really did take place on the ground, niid he had seen different sums of money change hands. , . ■ Mr. Brown expressed surprise that Mr. Atkinson had not reported the matter to tho committee. Persons had previously been removed from the ground for betting, and if Mr. Atkinson had tho best interests of the game at heart ho should have brought tho cases he referred to under tho notice of the committee. i Mr. .Kember failed to seo how the exclusion, of the bookmaker would affect the question. If there ■ waa any betting or squaring to be done it would be dono before the match.. Sir. Dawson - agreed to support Mr. Weir's motion if if would refer to "undesiTable characters," instead of bookmakers. Eren : then the committee would be faced with a difficulty in .'proving that anyone was an undesirable character. Eventually Sir. Weir's motion was withdrawn, and the meeting carried a motion by Professor Hunter that tho Management Committeo adopt stringent measures to putdown betting on football matches.