HOW TO BET.

Evening Star, Issue 19708, 8 November 1927, Page 6

HOW TO BET.

The Gaming Bill got its second reading in the House early this morning. But it was a Pyrrhic victory, because tho condition is that it is defunct for this session. Presumably matters are to go on as at present. That is to say that the bookmaker is to continue to remain an irritant parasite on his hosts, the Racing Conference and the stay-at-home better. David Hamm said that a certain amount of fleas were good for a dog, just to let him know that ho was a dog. So wc assume that it is good for both tho Racing Conference and for the punting public that the antiseptic importance of tho Legislature lias once more been proved. If tho Racing Conference wants to get rid of the bookmaker it has its remedy —to stop racing. If tho public wants to bo rid of tho same pest—or convenience—as tho case may be, it also has its remedy, which is to stop betting on racing. Both steps arc highly improbable. So long as there aro horses, they will be raced. So long as there aro horses racing, some people will bet on the result. A couuter-irrii.aut threatens in the form of greyhound racing. It may act as a diversion, but ono which will only aggravate tho aggregate of gambling. The racing kings have not exactly welcomed the trotting fraternity, and they still adopt a patronising air to tho more democratic style of recreation. Both, wc presume, scorn the dogs, and will invoke Parliament’s aid to suppress them. And Parliament will talk platitndinously and ultimately show itself as powerless as it has just done this week over the suppression of the bookmaker. • Last night’s debate was tedious repetition. Tho same old arguments poured from tho accustomed faucets. The Labor members assailed tho Racing Conference, partly because it is as autocratic a body as Labor itself aims to become when it achieves office, partly because it represents wealth, ami partly because it opposes tbc formation of a trade union among those who help to prepare horses to face the starter and—perhaps—catch the judge’s eye. In castigating the Racing Conference the Labor members were perforce driven into tho position of buttressing the bookmaker. > Logically this should entirely put Labor out of court in the discussion, because one of tho cardinal points in .Labor’s very contradictory platform is that the unearned increment is anathema. But Labor knows that the laws of logic do not apply in any discussion on such a subject, and that, if they were to be applied, the result would be a big turn-over of votes from the main source of tho bookmakers’ income. So Labor members have sat on the fence and derived tho enjoyment which leaches a certain mentality from the occupation of .jeering at everyone else. The position is that the bookmaker is still to go on his way, harried at intervals by the police, but all the time increasing his aggregate business. Those who know bettor than ourselves aro very positive on tho fact that the volume of bets made outside the totalizator's agency is far greater than it was before tho prosecutions of last winter. That attack was instigated by the Racing Conference. We I'car that body has been discredited by the whitewashing of horse owners thereby shown up. There will never be—them can never be—a fair and frank discussion of this most vexed, most intricate, and most important matter until the State’s hands aro clean in the matter. At present the State’s hands are all the fouler for tho inordinate levy it takes for legalising and supervising racing and the totalisator. The State’s hands would also be tho cleaner if it would answer to entire satisfaction an innuendo by Mr Potter, member for Roskill, concerning the activities of some of its most important agents in this matter.