THE GAMING ACT.

Waikato Times, Volume 100, Issue 16813, 3 June 1926, Page 5

THE GAMING ACT.

BOOKMAKING CHARGES. LIGHT PENALTIES IMPOSED. REFORMERS INDIGNANT (Special to Times.) WELLINGTON, Wednesday. The growing disposition on I lie part of magistrates to let off bookmakers offending .against the law with light penalties is a matter of general comment hero and is seriously perturbing the anti-gambling and anli-racing folk. Auckland appears not only to discover the greatest number of offenders against the law, but also to treat them when caught with the greatest consideration. This morning a case is reported from tho northern city in which the penally seems lo have been mitigated on the plea that the two knights of the pencil concerned, though admittedly carrying on their illicit profession, had not been before the Court for a number of years. This misplaced leniency, as the critics call the magistrate's acceptance of the plea, has thrown the active reformers into a breathless state of indignation. They do not pretend to be acquainted with the details of the case, and they arc prepared to apologise to the magistrate if they arc doing him any injustice; but meanwhile they maintain that the offenders' immunity from prosecution for a number of years can have been due only to the connivance of the police, and that instead of being made a reason for the mitigation of punishment should have been regarded as a reason for the infliction of the severest penally. The Minister of Justice, they say, is lo hear something about the matter.