The Totalisator Case.

Wairarapa Standard, Volume XIX, Issue 1811, 24 March 1886, Page 2

The Totalisator Case.

His Honor, Mr Justice Richmond, has upheld the decision of Mr Wardell in the totalisator case of Dark v the Island Bay Racing Company. Mr Wardell, ths Besident Magistrate, held that investments in the totalisator were wagers, and the totalisator an of gambling, so that investors bad no legal right to sue the stakeholders. His Honor, Mr Justice Richmond, took a similar view. He said the action was one undoubtedly to enforce a wager made with what the Act in section 8 described as an instrument of gaming. Each investor backed a particular horse against the field, and the men working the machine were the stakeholders. The bet was made between the depositors, whether they knew each other or not, and the action was brought to compel the stakeholder to give effect to the conditions of the wager. Section 83 made all wagering agreements null and void, and provided that no action oouldbe taken to enforce them. The totalisator was in that position, and a wager made through it could not be enforced by law any more than any other wagers. The plaintiff’s right of action was barred by the statute, and judgment should have been for defendant. It is quite clear after this decision that people who may put money into the totalisator ;cannot recover at law any sum which they win. The totalisator is an instrument of gambling, and in the hands of unscrupulous men can also be made an instrument of wholesale robbery and swindling, with respect to whieh the persons victimised have no legal remedy. There is nothing to hinder the holders of a totalisator at a big race meeting making off with all the money entrusted to them by the public, thus affording the spectacle of triumphant rascality with the law on its side, mocking at the victims it has made. The employment of the totalisator should no longer be legalised, and we hope that the clause in the Gaming and Lotteries Act which sanctions its use will be expunged from the Statute Book.