The Waipawa Mail WEDNESDAY, DEC. 27, 1933. THE GAMBLING INSTINCT.

Waipawa Mail, Volume LXII, Issue 44, 27 December 1933, Page 2

The Waipawa Mail WEDNESDAY, DEC. 27, 1933. THE GAMBLING INSTINCT.

It is evident that the gambling instinct is inherent in a large number I of people, and that if it is suppressed j in one form it is apt to break out in . another. It is, therefore, a question j lor consideration whether some form oil iState lottery, such as obtains in j many Continental countries, would not be preferable to art unions, as at i preseht conducted, and to the numerous outside sweeps, in subscriptions [ to which so much money leaves the . country to benefit other lands. Art j unions receive subscriptions out of all 1 proportion to the money returned in I prizes, and the odds against any one | ticket obtaining a prize are enormous. | In any lottery of this kind a large i percentage of the money subscribed ! ought to go in prizes, whereas in some | art unions less than 20 per cent, bar : been so returned. Nor have the objects for which some art unions have | been sanctioned been such as to deserve assistance of this kind. There j is no reason, for instance, why sports 1 clubs should rely on outside aid for : their upkeep and development.- | Governments have seldom been consistent in their attitude towards gambling, and our own Government jis no exception. The Post Ollice is used to transmit betting telegrams, and the revenue from these is conI siderable. Yet the papers arc not j allowed to publish the totalisator dividends lest such, publication should foster the gambling- instinct. Chinese are prosecuted for playing their own games of chance among themselves, i while bridge and other card games are 1 played in clubs and private houses I for high stakes without let or liindj ranee. There is a good deal of hypo- ■ crisy in our attitude towards gamb- ! ling in all its forms. Partly this is i due to the fact that no reaily satisi factory definition of gambling has j been forthcoming, and partly to the fact that I deavor to stamp out by the rigor of the law every form of ; betting or gaming for money stakes would he regarded by a large number cl people as an interference with liberty. What is wanted is some common-sense treatment of the problem of betting, sweepstakes and simi- , lai forms of gambling. At present . we have neither common sense nor j consistency. Belting may he regarded as a regrettable propensity, but to many people it is a form of enjoyment, and they contend that within reasonable limits it is better for them to have some chance of gain than to look forward without hope to a life of poverty. It is impossible to suppress Die instinct entirely, and many people Del that it might he better’to have Dtate lotteries rather than State connivance at illegalities in this direction which it cannot or docs not care to suppress. :