THE GAMBLING EVIL.

Evening Post, Volume LVI, Issue 74, 24 September 1898, Page 4

THE GAMBLING EVIL.

« The Government is to be congratulated on the anti-gambling legislation introduced into the Legislative Council by the Minister for Education. The streets of our larger towns have been growing more and more the scenes of betting operations that do great harm to all sections of the community, and especially to the young. Gambling is quite the national vice of Australasia, and the love of it seems ingrained in the colonial characlor. This is no doubt largely clue to thfi nature of the early settlements in many colonies, and to the precarious nature of the livelihoods gained by colonists of older days in mining aud other speculative enterprises. The State has, as the Hou. Mr. W. C. Walker pointed out yesterday, assumed a very serious responsibility in licensing the totalizator. By doing so it has thrown the cloak of legality over proceedings of doubtful morality, and has certainly done a great deal towards familiarising old and young, men and women, throughout the colony with gambling 1 and its charms. Whatever may be said iv favour of the totnlisator, nothingcan be urged on grounds qf sport or anything else in favour of the " tote-betting " metallician. Such a parasite upon the vices of the community needs to be repressed with a strong hand, and it ia open to question whether a mere

;CU) lino would prove such an effectual deterrent as a short ttM-m of imprisonment. These harpies aiv particularly active just before race meetings, and their unlawful operations would be considerably curtailed by the risk of a quiet retirement to one of Her Majesty's gaols during the days of the meeting. Besides doing a great amount of harm to the youths of our towns, these peripatetic tote-shops are a positive nuisance iv our streets. The principle in the Government's new Bill is admittedly a right one, but a few amendments may be needed in detail. It is to be hoped, however, that it will not be watered down so as to prove ineffectual.