PROPOSED GAMING ACT

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIII, Issue 63, 10 February 1933, Page 6

PROPOSED GAMING ACT

LICENSING OF BOOKMAKERS. STRONGLY OPPOSED BY POLICE. (By Telegraph.—Special to Standard.) WELLINGTON, Feb. 9. The police attitude towards the licensing of bookmakers is one of hostility, according to the evidence tendered to the Statutes Revision Committee of the House of Representatives by the Commissioner, Mr W. G. Wohlmann. . , “I cannot see that anything would he gained by licensing bookmakers, but I see many objections,” said the Commissioner in enumerating his objections. Mr Wohlmann said it was unlikely that the licensing of a number of bookmakers would prevent unlicensed bookmakers from continuing to operate in breach of the law as they were doing at present. The prosecution of unlicensed bookmakers would not be rendered any more easy by the existence of licensed bookmakers. Mr Wohlmann also said that the licensing of bookmakers would be detrimental to horse racing, due to the increased facilities afforded to improperly influence the result of' a race. The two years’ experience of licensed bookmakers (1907-9) was so unfavourable that a return would be much regretted. The conduct of race meetings during that time compared so unfavourably' with the present that no one could wish for a return of those days. With the introduction of the totalisator and the gradual elimination of bookmakers upon the passing of the Gaming Amendment Act, 1907, the result was that there was much less betting among women and youths, he added. Guessers, touts and undesirables who usually followed a certain class of bookmaker were excluded. The .totalisator was undoubtedly the best method of betting. . * i “The passing of the Gaming Amendment Act, 1907, compelling racing clubs against their -will to license bookmakers, resulted in double the number of bookmakers attending race meetings to the number existing before the passing of the Act, many of these being simply swindlers, thieves and most undesirable characters who, with their clerks and touts, were a menace,” he continued. “When not plying their bookmaking swindles on the racecourse these undesirables resorted to gambling, thieving, housebreaking and other crimes. At that time there was an influx of criminals from Australia to this Dominion.”