WAR ON S.P. BETTING

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23511, 27 May 1938, Page 12

WAR ON S.P. BETTING

POLICE NAME FOUR HOTELS (From Our Own Correspondent) SYDNEY, May 20. New South Wales police dropped a bombshell in a renewed attack on off-the-course betting by declaring four Sydney hotels to be “ common gaming houses,” under a section of the Gaming and Betting Act. This Act empowers any policeman to arrest any person found on “ declared ” premises, and such persons must satisfy a magistrate that they were on the premises for a lawful purpose, failing which they are liable to six months’ imprisonment. The police move is a forerunner to an amended Gaming and Betting Act being prepared by a parliamentary committee for the suppression of starting-price betting. The amended Act is expected to follow closely the rigid provisions of the Queensland Act, imposing stiff penalties and curtailment of race broadcasts, with dispensations for country people. Starting-price betting has been-a bogey to New South Wales Governments for years, ahd has been evaded by them until now. The majority of people refuse to view S.P. betting as a crime or undesirable, and consequently politicians have been reluctant, to make it an election issue. From a means -of making money illegally for a few individuals, S.P. betting business grew like a snowball until practically every hotel became a miniature racecourse, where the unlicensed bookmakers operated openly. Telephone betting was extensively organised, the principals entrenching themselves in city offices with perhaps a dozen telephones and a large staff. They were safe from the law’s interference so long as the Federal Government-controlled Post Office Department did not interfere. The police did their best under the existing inadequate laws, but they only succeeded in bringing about two Royal Commissions to inquire into their methods, and the whittling down of their power. The last Stevens Government nibbled at the problem, but quickly shelved it as the elections approached. The question was carefully omitted from policy speeches, but now in his new three years’ term of office, the Rtgmier (Mr Stevens) is tackling the matter determinedly. The action of the police in throwing the onus on hotelkeepers to stamp out betting on their premises was generally regarded unfair, but there was no doubt about its salutary effect on the first day of trial last Saturday. Most hotels closed down on race broadcasts altogether, and did not post results in the bars. It was still possible to obtain bets where bookmaker and client knew each other, but even then transactions were furtive. Increased attendances were reported from the Moorefield Racing Club Proprietary’s meeting, and football bodies, which blamed S.P. betting for loss of interest in their games were gratified by increased support. . ~ ~ , Hotelkeepers received the declarations ” with mixed feelings. Most of them did not favour betting in their hotels as it tended to attract undesirables, btit they had no alternative while it was encouraged by other licensees to increase trade. On the other hand they did not relish the prospect of being held responsible for the suppression of betting on their premises, and the occupiers of the four “ declared ” hotels felt that a stigma had been placed on them. . , , The United Licensed Victuallers Association, representing 600 hotelkeepers reluctantly supported the police action and at a meeting it was decided that members should curtail race broadcasts to descriptions, omitting betting details, post positions and jockeys’ mounts. S.P. bookmakers also held a meeting at which they suggested that betting shops should be licensed, each person entering a shop for a bet to be taxed a shilling. From this and other taxes it was estimated that £1,000,000 a year would be raised. The money Could be distributed among racing clubs and the hospitals. Legalised off-the-course betting, however, will not be tolerated by the Stevens Government. 1 The general opinion of the result, of the campaign is that it will succeed in suppressing hotel betting, but will drive the evil underground, making its control almost impossible.