GAMBLING EPIDEMIC

Greymouth Evening Star, 9 October 1928, Page 5

GAMBLING EPIDEMIC

RUN ON SHILLING SHARES

LONDON, September 26.

Thousands of pounds a day are passing through the London Stock Exchange. It is an epidemic of gambling, pure and simple. Shilling shares are being issued by dozens of new companies, in connection with novelty flotations, such as safety glass, cheap gramophone records, wireless, talking pictures, and many other things. These shilling shares mean that the smallest investor is able to participate. For this reason, huge issues, often running into millions, are practically certain of over-subscription in a day, and shares invariably open at a premium. The rise, of course, is not warranted. For example, last week one gramophone company’s shares advanced from Is to 225.

It is the public that pays in the long run, but, like most gambling ventures, a taste of the smallest measure of success means that the public hangs on and becomes the victim of professional rigging of the markets by persons who are making thousands of

pounds. The Times and other papers have repeatedly warned the public of this chaotic system of finance, but it has had little effect. The stockbrokers’ telephones are ringing ceaselessly. Women are large operators. The papers liken yesterday’s Stock Exchange to a Rugby scrum. Dealings are continued in the street well into the night. A big break like the recent. one, is inevitable.

The prices of some of the new companies’ stock represent them as being worth millions sterling, as against a few thousands of assets, and virtually no goodwill.