GAMING CHARGES

Greymouth Evening Star, 20 November 1939, Page 2

GAMING CHARGES

WAIUTA RESIDENTS FINED. In consequence of a police raid upon premises at Waiuta, early on Saturday morning, twelve Waiuta residents weie charged with breaches of the Gaming Act in the Magistrate’s Court at Greymouth, to-day, before Mr. G. G. Chisholm, S.M. _ . , John Anderson, 25, single, miner (Mr. C. R. McGinley) was charged (1) That, on November IS, at Waiuta, being .the occupier of premises, he did use them as a common gaming-house, (2) being the proprietor of a public billiard room, did permit there games, when the room was required by law to be closed. The following .were charged with being found without lawful excuse in. a common - gaming-house: Tnomas Edward Elgin, James Hamilton Lynch, David White, Richard Napier Osbourn, Cyril Simms, Ernest Sincock, Donald BroXvn, Lauri John Niskanen, Douglas Kirk, Guiseppe Costelli, and William James Prendergast. All the defendants pleaded guilty. Detective-Sergeant H. E. Knight, sail, that defendant was employed as > a quartz miner, working full time fit Waiuta. In September last he took over a billiard saloon there, under license from the Grey County Council. At that time he was interviewed by Constable Wilson, and asked if he knew the requirements of the law. He stated that he did and that he would respect them. However, it was observed that on pay-nights, the saloon was open after midnight, and later observations were made by Constable Wilson. On October 4, men entered the saloon at 12.30 a.m., and were there until 4.30 a.m., gaming being detected. Similar observations were taken on November 5, which was again a paynight. The men entered the saloon at 12.12‘ a.m., and were still there when the observer had to leave at 2.45 a.m., there being reason to believe that they remained until 7.30 a.m. On November 16 he (DetectiveSergeant Knight) obtained a warrant and on the following day visited Waiuta in company with Detective C. Davis and Constable Wilson. At 3.20 a.m. on November 18 they visited the saloon and observed that Anderson and the other eleven men charged were gaming. Dice were in use on the billiard table; there were small piles of money about, a shaker and three dice and a marked blind. Defendant (Anderson) admitted that he was fairly caught and .agreed to appeal - voluntarily. The other men Were also decent about it. They admitted their offences and all appeared voluntarily. Nothing was previously known against any of them. There was one unfortunate feature that he had to mention concluded the Detective-Sergeant, and that was when gaming-houses were being run in such towns they had an epidemic of thefts of money, although he did not suggest that any of the defendants’ were in any way responsible. Mr. McGinley said that the facts were as stated by the Detective-Ser-geant. The night on which the raid was made was pay-night. After supper the defendants were looking for something to fill in time and asked Anderson, who was a workmate, to open the saloon. It was a well-known fact that West Coasters liked to play Lady Luck —not for gain, but just for fun, and this innate desire to gamble was accentuated in the mining towns, owing to the lack of social amenities. The defendants were all engaged in hazardous and laborious work, and they must have some outlet for the nervous tension arising from it. He (Mr. McGinley) asked the S.M. to deal leniently with Anderson, in view of his youth, anil the fact that he had never been in trouble before. The S.M. (to the Detective-Ser-geant) : What is the position as regards prosecutions of this sort in the district. The Detective-Sergeant said that there had - been similar prosecutions over a period of years, but none, to his knowledge, in Waiuta. It was not a common offence in the district., There were gaming-houses, but they ’ were really betting houses, not the sort concerned in the charges before the court. The S.M. said that the police evidence showed Anderson was warned when he took over the billiard saloon, but shortly after he was using the premises for systematic gaming. Closing the premises and then re-opening them in the early hours of morning could be only for the purpose of avoiding detection, and the same remark applied to th.e statement by counsel that it was done to provide amusement. That would hold more water if it was in the ordinary leisure hours, but when it was the early hours of the morning, the men were not just filling in time. The legislature provided a maximum penalty of £lOO for the offence, and there had been frequent prosecutions in other districts. In this, case he did not intend to inflict a heavy fine, but wished to point out that the offence was viewed seriously. Anderson would be fined £7 on the first charge, and £3 on the second and ordered to pay 11/6 witness’s expenses. In each of the other cases (against the men found on the premises) the maximum penalty was £lO, but in this case he would treat it as a warning, and each defendant would be fined 10/-. On the application of the DetectiveSergeant, an order was made confiscating the gaming material found, the marked blind, shaker and three dice.