THE TOTALISATOR CASES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XVII, Issue 5757, 30 April 1880, Page 5

THE TOTALISATOR CASES.

The proceedings at the Police Court yesterday will be read with, interest, as disclosing a good deal of law upon certain practices, very common on racecourses, independently of the particular charge that was being investigated by the Resident Magistrate. The cases will be universally known as the " Totalisator Cases," from the name of the instrument, the use of which originated the complaint made by the police, and prosecuted under sub-section 7 of section 4 of the Vagrant Act, 1866, which punishes 11 playing at a game of chance, with any table or instrument of gaming, in any open or public place," by imprisonment, without the alternative of a fine. The persons charged (James Corbett, Henry Richardeon. and Lawrence Adams) were convicted, and sentenced to a month's imprisonment with hard labour. Two " machines " (totalisators) were exhibited in Court, oue of them, a very elaborate piece of cabinet-making, with an electric battery attached. It was stated that the protection to the public was the fact that any alteration in the nnmbe'B would be made known by the **tell-tale" biill of the instrument ringing furiously. Bat it was also shown in this instance that the numbers could be altered without the bell giving any alarm whatever. It is stated that one of the. persons charged was not long since in a lucrative business in Dunedin, and gave it up to speculate with this 41 instrument of gaming." The second machine was called Friedman's Totaliser, and was a very primitive piece of construction. His Worship remarked upon the simplicity of the totalizer, but its simplicity, in the mind of the Beocb, was quite compatible with being made the means of cheating. These cases cannot fail to have a marked influence upon "betting, wagering, and games of chance played in pablic places." The evidence and arguments of counsel which will be found in another column are instructive as well as interesting. The question is being discussed now in Victoria as to whether the totalizator skould be legalised, and it remains to be seen whether a machine can be made which human ingenuity with a desire to swindle cannot turn into an instrument of cheating.