"A DECIDED MENACE"

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LV, Issue 17028, 13 August 1929, Page 7

"A DECIDED MENACE"

BOOKMAKERS' OPERATIONS I PLEA FOR GAMING BILL (Special to the Herald.) AUCKLAND, this day. Claiming that bookmakers were "a decided menace" and yet were really being supported by the churches, Sir Edwin Mltclielsun, president of the Auckland Racing Club, passed comment on tins opposition to .the Gaming Bill at the annual meeting this afternoon. "It. is somewhat difficult to understand the attitude taken by some of the churches in opposing the Gaming Bill, he »id, "for if they took the trouble to make inquiries in a 'broadminded spirit they would discover that the evil tney profess to find in betting really arises from the operations of bookmakers, who are a decided menace, and are more worthy of the opposition instead of what at present really amounts to the support of the churches. "Bookmakers have increased in number in the Dominion, and have for some years past been reaping a great harvest owing to the fact that money cannot be telegraphed for investment on the total isator. Churches should set their attention to the elimination of bookmakers, who do so much harm to the community by encouraging betting on credit, the real cause of the troubles in which young men become involved in this and every other country, and which, with its compulsory cash system, the totalisator does not bring about. "I hold that while betting is legalised it should be directed to its legitimate channel, the totalisator. The inclination to fcett is inhei«nt in every race and can only be destroyed or abolished voluntarily by everv person determining to forego and stifle those tendencies which ' have been inherited and followed r throughout centuries. Here I would like to «Jtpress the hope that recent disclosures in the press of dubious methods pursued by bookmakers may soon serve to disillusion those who do business with them, and that the result will be for tha benefit of racing and racing institntlOßS.'' .