GAMBLING IN AUSTRALIA

Otago Witness, Issue 3574, 12 September 1922, Page 26

GAMBLING IN AUSTRALIA

i REFORM—AND OTHERWISE. SYDNEY, August 30. Several aspects of gambling have beem before several of the States of the Commonwealth during the last week or so. In New South Wales the Government has just outlined proposals designed ‘to combat the gambling mania. They refer chiefly to promiscuous lotteries and raffles. Steps will 1m? taken in the new Act to restrict the operations of Tattersall’s sweeps and tho Golden Casket, the art union by which the Queensland Government obtains money for the upkeep of its hospitals. It will be made an offence for newspapers to publish tho result of these sweeps, the penalty being P o r .-v of o*loo Tt ’s »->»rmosed flint ’"iv ▼'eualty imposed by the Act may he recovered in a summary way before any Police Court. The display upon any premises of any information regarding a foreign lottery will b« an offence punishable by a fine of £‘2oo. It has been the usual practice for art union and raffle tickets to be sold anywhere and everywhere. The new Art will restrict the sale to the- bazaar or fair with which tho art union is connected. Drastic provisions for the safeguarding of the public arc proposed in the form of a clause that will state that anybody concerned in the conduct of a raffle or lottery, who converts to his own use any of tho prizes or the money raised, shall be liable to five years’ imprisonment. A line of £IOO is provided for anybody who fakes tickets, or is responsible for a lottery being drawn The whole question of gambling lias been under discussion in Victoria, in connection with a motion in the Assembly for the int.uJudmn of ih tctalisat •; to racecourse* After an acrimonious debate tho proposal was narrowly defeated. As it took many years for a similar proposal to bo legalised in New South Wales, there is still hop© for Victoria. In Queensland the Government is meeting with much criticism because of its illogical attitude in conducting an art union at th« same time that it carries out a persistent campaign agains oilier forms of gambling,