BETTING PROBLEM

Te Aroha News, Volume XLI, Issue 6439, 17 January 1924, Page 3

BETTING PROBLEM

NEWSPAPER VIEWS

ON A BRITISH REPORT

The Auckland Star in a leader on the “Betting Problem,” says:—

The report of the British Committee on the taxation of betting is the result of an exhaustive inquiry which has been followed with great interest. The extent to which the gambling evil has developed in Britain has long been known to a few, especially to social workers; this inquiry has brought the problem into the full light of day. Members of the committee are reported to have been astonished at what they found. Streets are infested with bookmakers’ touts; industrial districts are dotted with gambling centres kept under the guise of legitimate business; there is systematic canvassing by bookmakers; and “there is hardly one works in the country employing 20 hands and over which is not supplied with a bookmakers’ agent.” To the evil of this widespread indulgence there is ample testimony. A writer in a recent “Nineteenth Century,” who opposes the proposed tax, declares that betting reduce/ the national output by at least 20 per cent., that it is the most fruitful source of crime, and that beyond everything else, even drink,, jt is the chief cause of misery and suffering among innocent third parties. A great deal of this will be admitted by all thinking people who have a moral sense, but the question is what to do. On the one hand there is the contention, pul/, with special force by the Churches, that if the State recognises gambling it encourages an evil. On the other is the argument that since it is quite impossible to put betting down, it is better to attempt to regulate it than to allow it to flourish unchecked. The main difficulty in the way of policies of prohibition or regulation is that a very large number of people do not consider gambling wrong in principle. Many of them may consider it wrong in certain circumstances, but they refuse to lay all gambing under a moral ban. This is recognised by the committee. It is significant that the report mentions that the police hate the work of detecting betting, for the reason that they bet themselves.

The recommendations of the committee are that the totalisator should be introduced, the bookmaker licensed, and betting taxed. Here in New Zealand we have had the totalisator for many years. It has increased betting by making it easier and more respectable. \lt has given the bettor a fair run for his money, and it has contributed substantially to the revenue of the State. But while the bookmaker has been prevented from flourishing as he does in England, he has not been 1 eliminated, even by drastic legislation. It is notorious that he plies his trade in defiance of the law, and rumour has it that the membership of his organisation is astonishingly large. We doubt whether anything will curb his activities save the acceptance by the totalisator of investments from a distance. But seeing that we have been unable to put down the bookmaker, will the more objectionable aspects of his trade in England disappear with the regulation of his trade and the introduction of the totalisator? Will there not be the same temptation to tout and corrupt, with the added inducement of a tax to be avoided? However,, the committee considers that some improvement can be made. It takes the line that though it may be impossible to stamp out the evil, it may be possible to control it—which is a large part of statesmanship. Men gamble not only for gain, but for the excitement, the pleasure of the thing, and you can stop gambling only by convincing them either that it is foolish or wicked, or that there are better forms of enjoyment. You can, however, keep gambling within some sort of bounds, and the idea in the report of this committee is to draw in these limits.