The Daily Telegraph. SATURDAY, JULY 27, 1901. LEGAL GAMBLING.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 9298, 27 July 1901, Page 4

The Daily Telegraph. SATURDAY, JULY 27, 1901. LEGAL GAMBLING.

The discussion on Mr Ell's bill to abolish the totalisator again brings into prominence the unfairness of the monopoly in gambling permitted to a certain section of the population. This is utterly- indefensible whatever view one may take of gambling as such. If we suppose it to be immoral, a vice gnawing at the prosperity of the. people—to be bad, in fact, in' any way—for the Governmentito license it and to share in profits derived from it must be wrong. But placing on one side altogether that view of the case, jand assuming for the purpose of argument that gambling is a pursuit which the Government may properly direct and profit by, then to permit a monopoly in regard to it is wrong except under one condition. It is that the Government should own that monopoly. Prom that point of view, if it be allowable to defend the Government licensing of gambling on the ground that " people- will gamble," which was practically the burden of those who opposed Mr Ell's bill, then the obvious duty of the Government is to establish lotteries and to make I the totalisator a State contrivance in i the most literal sense of the term.

Any other view lands us in absurdities. Why, for example, should not bicycle clubs be allowed to use the totalisator if it is permitted to clubs for racing horses ? A bill now before Parliament proposes to tax all owners of bicycles to the extent of five shillings yearly, to enable bodies called " Bicycle Boards " to put down racing tracks. According to that a section at least of Parliament thinks bicycle racing ought to be encouraged, just as another section thinks horseracing should be. To assist in the latter is said to be in the direction of improving the breed of horses. It might be pleaded in regard to the other form of sport that it tends to encourage the engineering industry and to provide work for the population. If the totalisator is necessary for the racecourse why not for the ; bicycle track ? Necessary or not, j why should it be allowed to the one and prohibited in regard to the other ? All the various forms of athletic sport might put in a plea for the totalisator from the " improvement of horses " point of view, for it is as important to improve men as horses. Any contention that an i innate love of sport without the totalisator will keep athletic clubs in existence, and athletic contests in favor with the people, will apply to j horse-racing if, as is asserted when j the right to a totalisator monopoly for it is claimed or defended, it exists as a sport because people are fond of I it. The common sense conclusion seems to be that gambling should be suppiessed by the State, or permitted under certain conditions to all sections of the community, or converted into a State monopoly pure and simple. The present system, under which the State grants some people the right to gamble with the totalisator, and prosecutes others who wager in connection with it, is illogical and unfair.