The Hastings Standard. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 14, 1909 THE GAMING ACT.

Hastings Standard, Volume XII, Issue 4129, 14 April 1909, Page 4

The Hastings Standard. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 14, 1909 THE GAMING ACT.

If anything further was required to demonstrate the absolute absurdity of the Gaming Act IQOB, in regard to its provisions permitting the indiscriminate licensing of bookmakers, whether they be jail birds, speelers, or respectable bona fide followers of the calling, it is to be found in the incidents which have occurred lately and were repeated -it Auckland on Saturday and again at Waipukurau on Monday. The very misleading appearance of respectability which the the licensed badge gives to all classes of men who desire to call odds on a race course, is responsible for the lambing down of the average betting man to whom all "bookies" are alike. It will be found that the most unreliable men do the biggest trade, owing to being able to call higher ode's, relying on the practice of offering back their clients' money if they are badly struck and closing down business for the day. We are ready to admits that there ;_re many very respectable bookmakers in New Zealand, and that as long as betting is a legal practice, they have as much right to follow their calling as the totalisator has to be in existence. But these men and the public want protection against the "spieler" class, which has all to win and nothing to lose —not even a good name* The position calls loudly for an alteration in the gaming law in this direction, and the sooner the Act of 1908 is repealed or so amended that only men of standing may appear as pencillers on the racecourses the better. And even these men should be compelled to belong to an association which would be responsible forits members' engagements, or else, for the protection of the public, each bookmaker taking out a license should have to lodge with the secretary of the racing club a substantial deposit as a guarantee of financial soundness. It will be readily seen by the report we publish to-daj T of the incident which occurred at Waipukurau, that, unless the law is altered to protect the public from robbery on the racecourse, before very long we shall be called upon to report another "Flemington" trick in which a bookmaker was booted to death by an angry mob that had been defrauded of its money.