BETTING

Greymouth Evening Star, 2 December 1925, Page 3

BETTING

A WORLD FEVER. The following, culled from an Australian exchange, deals with the subject of betting viewed from a very common-sense point of view: — In England, as a recent Royal Commission disclosed, betting is the daily habit of the multitude. It is computed officially that the bets openly made each year amount to £175,000,000, and at least another £15,000,100 is bet illegally on the streets. In Italy the State lottery is the great producer of revenue, and, in fact, the principal industry of the country, if industry can be measured in terms of money invested. The weekly lottery ticket is a confirmed habit not only of the wealthy, who can afford it; not only of the middle classes, who might be able to afford it; not only of the poorer working classes, who cannot afford it ; but of the very poorest people, who positively cannot afford it, and who find the money from nobody knows where. In France, in Germany, in Italy, the position is the same. All the world has the fever. None can cure it or even check it. Reformers, if they have the law with them, and the persistency, may in time enforce Prohibition. Scientists, with luck and public co-opera-tion, may stamp out smallpox. But all the ardour of reformers, combined with all the science of scientists, added to all the skill of politicians, cannot even put a brake on gambling. By law in Victoria betting is illegal in shops, clubs, factories, and on the streets. It goes on in all those places, merrily on. By law it is illegal to send that postal note to Tasmania. Bushels of postal notes go there by every mail. In New York, even or the racecourse, betting is forbidden If is also illegal in many of the. othei States. An expert computation is that at least £250,000,000 changes hands every year in the United States in bets. Periodically the police ir ■ New York made raids. A few of ths retiring gentlemen who transact this business are hauled before the Courts, They cheerfully pay their fines, anc go back to business. Illegal as it may be in numerous States, betting is.oni of the greatest industries in America.