THE BETTING EVIL AND HOW TO COPE WITH IT.

Marlborough Express, Volume XXXVI, Issue 156, 7 July 1902, Page 2

THE BETTING EVIL AND HOW TO COPE WITH IT.

The betting evil is in the Old Country as great a curse as it is here in New Zealand. This is saying a good deal, for there is very little doubt that in this colony hundreds of young men every year lay the foundations of their future ruin through becoming addicted to the practice of gambling on horse races. Our readers are well aware of our views on the question of the totalisator, and the means we would like to see adopted for the stamping-out of what is known as " tote" betting. Abolish the use of the telegraph wires for the means of transmitting bets, render it a felony to make bets with minors, and—best proventative of all— make it illegal to lay " tote odds" save on the racecourse itself where the race is being run on which tho bet is made. These views we have frequently placed before our readors, and we have had tho satisfaction of seeing them reflected in many othor journals. To-day it is a pleasing duty to draw the attention of our readers to the fact that the House of Lords' Committee appointed to consider the prevalence of gambling has

come to conclusions almost identical with our own. The Committee concludes that betting cannot be completely suppressed, but "ought to be restricted to the actual scene of racing or athletics, and further that bookmakers inducing youths to bet should be imprisoned." With'such a finding to fortify them Ministers should, it is our opinion, introduce a Bill during tho pFesent session of Parliament, in which the means suggested by the House of Lords should be incorporated and made law. If bookmakers were liable to a fine of £o0 to £100 for making a bet with a minor, tho penalty for a s-econd offence to be three months imprisonment with hard labor, and were also forbidden under equally severe penalties to lay tote odds atany race meeting at which they, and the other p-irtios to the wager, were not in personal attendance, tho worst evils of the belting nuisance would disappear as if by magic. Further and important results would be the clearing out of the big (owns a host of half-loafers, halfswiiidlers, who are called bookmakers ; working-men and clerks would not be able to bet, save once or twice a year at bhe local race meeting ; tradesmen's accounts would bo paid with much greater regularity; and wives and children would not suffer, as they do now, from the consequences of the folly of their husbands and fathers. By all means let Now Zealand have legislation without delay on tho lines wo have suggested.