BOOKMAKING RIFE

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18313, 3 February 1934, Page 12

BOOKMAKING RIFE

OFFICES AND AGENCIES .. Njf.., •• '.• • ALL CLASSES CATERED FOR AN ILLEGAL BUSINESS Bookmaking is still rife . in Christdrarpb.. Those who carry on this business Tange from the men who take throepenny bets from relief workers to those With highly organised businesses who are Willing to take a bet of £IOO or even £SOO &nii know that they have the funds $6 pay out. inquiries made in the city show that It is impossible to count the bookmakers. The really “big’ ’ ones are few—there are probably not more than a dozen —but those in the silver class are numberless. Then there are the agents. Jpvery bookmaker carrying on a big business has anything up to fifty agents in the city. To make a bet in Christchurch is not difficult. In every workshop, factory, or |>ig establishment of any sort, there is fither a straight-out bookmaker or a •‘bookie’s” agent. , All that one has to do is to make a few inquiries as to whero jnqney can be put on a horse. The inquirer is then directed either to a person {q the building or given a telephone number, and the rest of the transaction is

POLICE NOT HELPED , Bookmaking is illegal, and the question j naturally arises: Why do the police not ( catch more of them? The answer is | easy. Nearly 100 per cent, of those interested in horse racing do not look on ( bookmaking as illegal and the last thing , a betting man will do is to give informa- , tion to the police. . Every now and again a bookmaker is j caught* and convicted, being fined anytiling from £5 to £250. That does not . suppress the business. Those who follow it as an occupation look on the fine , as something in the nature of a license fee and carry on again, although for a while after a raid they are usually very cautious about accepting new' customers. , The police are always on the lookout for bookmakers, but their field of activity is limited. Of course, the man who takes bets on the outer of a racecourse is just inviting trouble, as is also the man who takes bets on the streets, although this is sometimes done in Christchurch. “Information received’’ is known to be the source of most police activity. Police officers will not discuss their methods, but it is known that they act quickly when a woman reports that her husband is spendingi too much of his wages with a bookmaker. Another source of information is the punter who has laid a bet and then been “welshed.” Ho , wants his money and jus he cannot get it, he becomes vindictive and reports the i transaction to the police. ; TELEPHONES USED i Most of the betting is carried out by ■ telephone, but the stranger will not find i a bookmaker’s number in the telephone 1 • directory. In fact, it is not listed at all. i This practice is not uncommon in legi-j timaie business. A fen f for example, *

wishes to have one telephone always clear for outward messages and, by informing the Post Office that it does not desire the number to go in the directory, the omission is made. The Post Office does not inquire into the character of any business it supplies with a telephone, or, for that matter, with a private letter box. However, the average bookmaker knows that the police have powers, whero the commission of an offence is suspected, to examine letters or tap the telephone, so they usually take the phone’and the letter Ixix in an assumed name. There have boon cases where telephones have been connected, but not listd, in the names of law-abiding citizens, who have no knowledge that their names are being used for illegal purposes. It is not generally known that it is an offence to make bets with a bookmaker, but the detection of this is much more difficult than the catching of the actual bookmaker, for a mere telephone message, even when it is received by the police when they take charge of a suspected bookmaker’s house, is not sufficient evidence to enable action to be taken.