ORGANISED RAID ON BOOKMAKERS

Dominion, Volume 23, Issue 74, 20 December 1929, Page 9

ORGANISED RAID ON BOOKMAKERS

SUCCESSFUL ROUND-UP IN WAIKATO HEAVY FINES FOLLOW By Telegraph.—Press Association. Hamilton, December 19. Raids were made by the police in various Waikato towns this morning on premises suspected of being run as common gaming houses. As a result, five arrests were made at Hamilton, while others were effected at Morrinsville, Matamata, Rotorua and Te Puke. The raids, which were on an organised basis, and were the largest ever conducted in the Hamilton police district, were carried out with precision and thoroughness, and were over before any owners of raided premises had an opportunity of putting others “wise” to the police operations. At the Magistrate’s Court yesterday afternoon, Charles Jackson, a hairdresser, and James Henry Doleman, a tobacconist, were each fined £lOO, and Robert Irvine, a hat blocker, £3O, for keeping common gaming houses and bookmaking. Hillary Quinn, an insurance agent, and Charles O’Brien were each fined £3O for bookmaking. The Magistrate, Mr. Wyvern Wilson, said bookmakers were parasites and should rightly be put down. He referred not only to the large but to the small bookmaker. The small bookmaker lived on the working man, who could least afford to keep him. The Magistrate warned licensees or hotels against permitting bookmakers on their premises. Licensees were liable to jeopardise their licenses in allowing that sort'of thing to continue. “IN A FAIRLY BIG WAY” ANOTHER £lOO FINE Auckland,' December 19. In the Morrinsville Magistrate’s Court to-day Stephen Joseph Bain, a billiard saloon keeper, was, convicted of keeping, a common gaming house, and was fined the maximum of £lOO. The police, stated it was common knowledge that Bain had been carrying on as a bookmaker in a fairly big way for several years. His premises were raided this morning. A big pile of books and papers was produced in court The defendant said he was a bookmaker in a small way only. The Magistrate: I don’t believe it. I don’t think he was in a small way. He is fined the maximum of £lOO.