GAMBLING CRAZE.

Waikato Times, Volume 102, Issue 17222, 4 October 1927, Page 4

GAMBLING CRAZE.

GROWING IN ENGLAND. BETTING IN THE STREETS. RACES AND CIIEMIN-DE-FER, The most notable change In England, according to a.n overseas visitor who recently arrived in London after an interval of 10 years, is that there is much more gambling and much less drinking, and, perhaps for the first time in history, be says, the British of literally all classes have learned to drink with discretion. Club boozers, closing-time incapables, mid-night revellers—all have gone completely out of fashion. On the other hand, there is 10 times more gambling than ever there was before, and it permeates the social life of the nation from top to bottom, instead of being confined, as formerly, to a few sections.

The law which forbids cash betting away from racecourses is, of course, the same in Britain as in New Zealand. And it comes in the category of unwanted laws—which is to say, it is broken freely. A well known newspaper man observed the other day in his journal:—

“Ready-money betting is as regularly observed In London as the omnibus services. The police know as well as I know, and as the public knows, that big bookmakers employ a corps of agents and runners.’’ Sir Walter Gilbey, who can testify Os an expert, estimates that 80 per cent of all the betting done in England takes place in the streets. As the only means of doing away with what amounts to a public scandal, while the law stands as it does, Lord Newton recently brought forward a Bill to legalise cash betting. It was shelved, hut won a lot of support, and will certainly make its appearance again. The passing of the Bill will not increase the volume of betting—hardly anything could do that —and it will make the law less of an ass.

Betting At Prize Fights. Betting at prize fights is frowned on as blackly by the British as it is by the New Zealand boxing .authorities; the difference is that the British authorities are not taken so seriously. This is a Daily Mail protest against conditions at the Albert Hall, where all the big fights are being staged nowadays:— Recently the bookmakers, not content with taking possession of the front seats, also forced a way to the press table, where they kept up a running fire of chatter and hoarse shouting, that to say the least of it, was unedifying.”

Betting with schoolboys or .children is an offence that is discouraged by magistrates to the-limit of their powers, but it is astonishingly prevalent. Not only in fashionable public schools like Eton, where gambling has hardened into a sort of tradition, but in schools attended by the poorest in the land. At the conference of the National Association of Head Teachers, at Liverpool, a Mr Freer, of Hull, said: — “in the district where iny school is situated gambling is rampant. Boys and girls in my own school put money on horses regularly as part of the day's programme." At Oxford ten years ago gambling — apart from betting on races was confined to poker, banker, bridge, etc.; at stakes which might cause a win or loss on the evening, of £5. Now the favourite games are roulette and che-min-de-fer. At the latter it is fairly common to see a bank opened at £IOO. One enterprising youth, before being sent down, amassed nearly £3OOO by running a roulette table, bought into a bookmaking firm with the proceeds, and has not troubled his parents for funds since.

The adult gambler Is catered for in the great cities on a scale that is unknown elsewhere in the world. Chemin-de-fer is the game, as a rule. You can take your choice between playing at a Mayfair mansion or a Soho flat, and the methods toy which the gambler gratifies his craving in London are much the same as those by which a drinker gets whisky in New York. The equivalents of bootleggers are easy ’to find—men who will introduce strangers to houses where they can play. The most luxurious of these —Captain Taylor’s house, off Park Lane —has just been closed down following on an exposure of the large sums of money dropped there, but otiiers remain, and are doing ail the better for the elimination of their most formidable rival. Play was perfectly fair at Captain Taylor’s house; refreshments were unlimited, and of the best, and no one was obliged to gamble who preferred to look on. lie made his profit by taking G per cent of every bank —called a percentage —which brought him in hundreds of pounds every night. But there are many at which the play is far from fair, and all are liable lo be raided at any time by the police. A recent raid on a house in Grosvenor Crescent produced a bag as mixed as any that could have been secured in a night club. On the whole, however, gambling in private houses is no more perilous to those who dread the law’s attention than gambling in public streets. It may be that the British police have a sneaking .sympathy with illegal gambling (a trait that is certainly not possessed by the French police, who fairly harass breakers of France’s complicated betting laws), or again it may be that the authorities despair of stemming Niagara. Whatever the explanation may he, gambling goes on and on, and is participated in by high and low, rich and poor.