SWITZERLAND DOES A FINE THING.

Waikato Times, Volume 100, Issue 16712, 30 January 1926, Page 14 (Supplement)

SWITZERLAND DOES A FINE THING.

HOW THE PRESIDENT KILLED ! GAMBLING. CLOSING THE CASINOS. By the single casting vote of the President the Swiss National Council has decided! to abolish the gaminghouses of the country. This important step will mean the closing, probably by the 16 th of April, of gambling casinos at Berne, Geneva, Zurich, Lugano, and Interiaken. The proposal was due to the initiative of a private member of the Swiss Parliament, and there was considerable opposition. But the clever lawyer who rules over the Swiss people took a bold stand on the side of public morality and respectability and he deserves the thanks of his fellow countrymen, as well as of travellers in Switzerland. Unlike other Governments which permit the existence of gaminghouses, the Swiss Government did not take a share in the profits of this disreputable trade, but indirectly, by means of the income-tax, it benefited considerably, and »no doubt there will be an outcry against the loss of revenue. There are always plenty of willing agents to raise difficulties whe.i good work is being done._ But the fact is that the Swiss hav/j had enough of the casinos, and that is all that need be said about the matter.