BETTING TRANSACTIONS

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 42, 18 August 1925, Page 15

BETTING TRANSACTIONS

MAGISTRATE FINES BOOKMAKER'S AGENT FORTY POUNDS.

(Bt TELEGRAPH. —PRESS ASSOCIATION.)

NELSON, 17th August. • Reserved' decision was given by Mr. T. E. Jlaunsell, 8.J1., to-day, in the charge against W. H. Moxey of using premises in Trafalgar street as a common gaming house. Defendant was convicted and ' fined £40. The Magistrate said that there were, race cards relating to three different race meetings in defendants possession. He also had a ■ considerable sum of money,; and what a constable called "betting 'slips." These slips contained the names of various men and of horses, which, the constable said, had won races shortly before, and there were various sums of money in pounds and shillings opposite the names of the horses. These slips defendant tried to swallow. ' Defendant made bets with a total stranger. That did not indicate that the bets were casual. When asked if he was acting as principal or agent, he said that he was acting as agent for Maxwell. On the premises was a copy of, the "New Zealand Beferee"

containing a list o£ acceptances for race meetings held about that particular time. When a maji offered to bet with Maxwell in defendant's presence, Maxwell said : "Give it to Moxey, he-is my agent"; and Moxey did not deny that lie was Maxwell's agent. If he was acting for Maxwell the evidence was clearly sufficient to prove Maxwell to be a bookmaker, as a bookmaker was defined by the Act as including a bookmaker's agent. "Defendant 1 works on the premises in question for his father as a fruiterer," continued the Magistrate, "and it is proved to my satisfaction that he was using the premises as a common gaming house."

Counsel for defendant asked for leniency.

The Magistrate said that defendant was liable to three months' imprisonment, but he supposed' that if Magistrates imposed imprisonment for cases of this sort juries would be more loth to convict than they were at present. "The Government," proceeded the Magistrate, "does not seem to • have found a natural enemy for the parasites. An amazing feature about the matter is that the fellows who bet with them do not seem to be able to realise that if the chances are equal bookmakers would not be flourishing. They continue to

live in affluence, and render no social service whatever, but I suppose their customers are suffering from an incurable disease, and that is the evil of it. I will not commit defendant to imprisonment. I should have imposed a smaller penalty but for the fact that defendant endeavoured to destroy the evidence of his guilt by attempting to swallow the betting slips, and in inflicting a penalty I have no doubt his principal will pay the fine," Counsel : "That is not so." The Magistrate : "Very well, fee is fined £40."