The Star. (PUBLISHED DAILY.) WEDNESDAY, MARCH 24, 1886.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume VII, Issue 1265, 24 March 1886, Page 2

The Star. (PUBLISHED DAILY.) WEDNESDAY, MARCH 24, 1886.

THE TOTALISATOR CASE

The judgment o£ the Supreme Court in reference to the totalisator case reported in our issue of yesteaday must have considerably interested those who are in the habit of investing on the machine. Their position is very clearly defined, and it. is this : that having placed their money in the hands of a totalisator man, they have no further control over it, and no legal remedy against him should he choose to button up his pockets and walk off the course with £1000 of their money. Mr. Justice Richmond holds that a man who puts a pound on a particular horse backs that horse against the field, that this is simply a wager, and, that as all wager agreements are null and void under the Gaming and Lotteries Act, there can be no right of recovery in respect of such agreements. The soundness of the learned Judge's dictum is no doubt beyond all question ; and had it not been for one circumstance, probably such a case would never have been brought into court. That circumstance is this : that the use of the totalisator under certain conditions is made legal, and not unnaturally it was suppo?ed that the use of this " instrument of gaming" having been made legal, all contracts arising out of its use must a fortiori have also been made legal. This is not the case, and the peculiarity of the position is that contracts arising out of the performance of an act which in itself is legal are declared illegal. However, this is after all only a minor inconsistency springing out of the major inconsistency of which Parliament was guilty when in passing an Act to suppress gaming, it authorised the use k of an instrument of gaming which has increased gaming tenfold. We think that every one who has any experience of what goes on at a race course will agree that many persons who never speculated a penny before the passing of the Gaming and Lotteries Act have done so since by means of the totalisator, though it would be very difficult to point to an instance in which the Act has put an end to gambling proclivities. There is, however, we believe, this advantage — a negative advantage it may be — about the totalisator, that all transactions are in cash, and that therefore men who indulge are less likely to become entangled by " debts of honor " than they were under the old system of betting with bookmakers. We have no doubt that the decision under notice will lead to an attempt to amend the law next session by making racing clubs legally liable on transactions iv connection with tobalisators under their control. It may be that there will also be an attempt made to repeal the exemption under which the instrument may be used, though it is not likely k> he successful. The influence of the racing clube is pretty strong in the House, and it is well known that if the use of the totalisator were prohibited, racing would receive a great blow— such has been the experience in South Australia. But certainly the use of the machine should be prohibited, or the law should be amended so as to prevent the possibility of people who choose to be rascals pocketing other people's money without fear of consequences.