A WELCOME AMENDMENT BILL

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1038, 31 July 1930, Page 10

A WELCOME AMENDMENT BILL

LEVEL-HEADED New Zealanders who have reviewed irnpar- ‘ tially the condition of racing and its attendant gambling cannot do other than view with satisfaction the prospect of a “good run” for Mr. K. S. Williams’s Gaming Amendment Bill. The Prime Minister’s laconic but encouraging promise to a deputation which waited upon him yesterday indicates that his party as a whole favours the proposed changes. In view of past experiences and happenings—particularly those of recent date—this is a reasonable and an understandable attitude. The time is fully ripe in the Dominion for an abandonment of hypocrisy and obsolete practices in the control of gaming. Under present conditions a large section of the public, is mocking regulations that cannot be enforced effectively. Efficient private systems have been evolved to circumvent the law of the land, and the result is an unhealthy contempt for State authority. Such a spirit is not conducive to the well-being of a nation or a community. When its existence becomes as glaringly apparent as is the case in New Zealand at the present time, legislators should and must make it their duty to take stock of the situation and find the remedy. The law must be either enforced to the letter or amended with tolerance and sanity. Under the existing Act the publication of dividen/ls and the telegraphing of bets to racecourses are forbidden. In plain words the result of this twin ban has been ludicrous and farcical. Because of the dividend smoke-screen, reputable journals from Auckland to Invercargill have been forced info the. position of employing quaint and clumsy artifices such as “More flian a dozen, or “Nearly a score,” in order to supply their readers with clues to dividends. No good purpose has been served bv this obscurity. The argument that the publication of exact dividends would facilitate the activities of bookmakers is laughable in view of the tremendous and obvious i.’crease in bookmaking since the Act came into force. Moreover, it need not be a secret that modern communication methods (supplied by the Government itself) enable bookmakers to glean all the informiflion they require without the slightest dependence on newspaper information. The forbidding of telegraphed bets, in modern circumstances. is similarly stupid. At present the Government's telegraph system, operating in conjunction with the telephone service, is being fully exploited by illegal organisations which, in actual practice, are reaping a rich harvest under the protection of the very Act that seeks blindly to hamner them. It is- indisputable that the opining of telegraph offices to totalisator investors in all parts of the country will have the immediate effect of lessening bookmaking—a business that has thrived so enormously on the inability of people to visit overv meeting on which they wish to invest, The Gaming Amendment Bill, therefore, promises to direct racing profits through proper channels and result in additional revenue for the Government. Tt fullv deserves encouragement and a speedy passage through the House.