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Southland Times, Issue 23512, 19 May 1938, Page 10

Though it is easy to assess the amount of legitimate betting done in New Zealand in a year, it is almost impossible to estimate the actual sum that passes in 12 months through other channels. The legitimate avenues are the totalizator (which will account for roughly about £7,000,000 this year) and the art unions. Add to this the very vague sum that is handled by the bookmakers, who are outside the law, and perhaps one would not be far astray in a guess that gambling in the Dominion, as distinct from ordinary business speculation, accounts for at least £20,000,000 a year at present. Yet such a sum is a mite compared with the £350,000,000 that statistics reveal was thrown after horses and dogs, into football pools, and through automatic gambling machines alone in England last year, states a Wellington writer.