GAMBLING LAWS

Greymouth Evening Star, 25 May 1935, Page 13

GAMBLING LAWS

A PROFESSOR’S VIEWS. “As a teacher of law, I feel that I would be doing rather less than my duty if I failed to call attention to certain matters connected with the running of lotteries and art unions in New Zealand,” states Professor R. M. Algie, professor of law at Auckland University College, in an article in the latest issue of the “New Zealand Law Journal.”

“My thesis briefly put is this,” Professor Algie continues. “Art unions of the kind to which we are becoming habituated are definitely opposed to the true intent and purpose of the relevant sections of the Gaming Act; their authorisation by a Minister of the Crown at rapidly recurring periods extending over some five years constitutes, in my view, an improper use of the powers conferred upon the Minister by the Act “If lotteries and art unions are an evil in themselves, or in their widespread effects, let us have the courage to say so‘ and let us take appropriate measures to forbid them; but, on the other hand, if we are to have them at all, let us have them on a proper and sound legal basis, instead of operating them by a method which some critics call a subterfuge.

SOURCE OF STATE REVENUE. “The gambling laws of our Empire furnish a most interesting subject for investigation. While all States are loud in their official condemnation of

the gambler, there are few which neglect the opportunity of filling the State revenue chests from the proceeds of this deep-rooted human passion. - In one Dominion the bookmaker may be held to be- a criminal, an outcast, a person whose presence prejudically affects .the atmosphere of our glorious, garden-like racecourses; in yet anothei- part of the Empire the same bookmaker might advertise his calling in the, of the most respectable newspapers and weekly periodicals. “Under our legislation, a body of jurymen may be asked to send, a fellow citizen to prison for the act of making bets, an act in which some of those very jurymen may have frequently participated, but his earnings as a bookmaker are subject to income tax Only a few short years ago the totalisator was a machine which, according to one of our Judges, could be taken by the police and destroyed. To-day its "use is legalised by special

tatutory provision. “In the midst of this welter of

illogicality and inconsistency, the element of hypocrisy is not far to seek,” Professor Algie adds. “We loathe the word ‘lottery’; it is too accurate; it offends our delicate susceptibilities. So we employ the wholly inaccurate term ‘art union.’ The ugly word ‘lottery’ becomes tolerable only when we can put the helpful word ‘State’ in front of it. ‘Sweepstake’ is an impossible word outside of India or Southern Ireland; instead we use the more euphonious term ‘consultation.’ A bet with anyone, even including a bookmaker, is a debt of honour; the same thing with a totalisator is an ‘investment.’ Truly we are a people! . . .”