Why do Modern Women Gamble?

Ladies' Mirror, Volume 5, Issue 3, 1 September 1926, Page 15

Why do Modern Women Gamble?

r ßy “Clubman”

Cfo Satisfy ffer (framing for Adventure and ‘dfomance

Instead of accumulating' wealth by slow degrees, people strive to get fortune by short cuts. The totalisator is one of the most convenient and mechanically perfect short cuts that modern brains have devised. And women arc fascinated with its ever changing face. They love to sec the numbers jumping up and up. Men are so different. To them half our modern business involves speculation of one kind or another. Men who would never touch a card, and would not know a steeplechase horse from a hobbled pacer, are really engaged all the time in making elaborate and perilous wagers — betting on the markets, on the crops.

on the weather, and dealing in land and miscellaneous property. There are risks, but there are possibilities; which is what attracts the adventurous.

life arc everlastingly being told * * by presumptuous people who have a penchant for interfering in other people’s affairs, that there is more betting by women than ever before, and that they arc becominginveterate gamblers. It’s all humbug!

The truth is women arc all heroworshippers, and they admire success. Many backed Peter Maxwell and Comical for the Grand National events at Riccarton. They were clever. It’s more than most of us did. But women follow form. And why shouldn’t they? Form —in one form or another, even the formless silhouette —is their god. We are told none but the brave deserve the fair, especially when the brave pull off double-figure dividends.

Still tins question of female betting raises a wider question than the chances of Grand National candidates. Women in these days bet seriously. It is no longer a case of a paltry half-crown interest in a tote ticket with a complacent male friend. That was the way it was done when Gwendolen met Horace at Ellcrslie or Riccarton in the “good old days.” Not so in these. The female punter is out for business. She quite understands the game or. at least, she thinks she does, which is about all that can be said for most of us who have a flutter on the gee-gees.

She studies the sporting columns and those dreamers of dreams and see-ers of visions, the sporting prophets ; she knows and recollects with that retentive memory for details of hers what any particular horse she was on payed when it started at Trentham or Manawatu or Wingitui ; and she can make things uncomfortable for anyone who tries to “bounce" her for her legitimate winnings, even if it only represents odd fractions of her share of the ticket. She doesn't care if the tote filches the fractions, she must have her full quarter or eighth or twentieth. Why won't Sir Edwin Mitchelson let us have a "ten bob” tote at Kllerslic? This would settle half the racecourse arguments between the sexes! The woman bettor loses, of course, more often than she wins; but she doesn’t say that. Despite her reticence on this subject, we arc inclined to believe she does not lose more frequently than mortals like the writer. Anyway she enjoys the process quite as much if you offer solace in the tea kiosk. Ought she to do it? Ought women to gamble? Well, if we come, to that, ought men to gamble? That is a question of abstract morals which it seems almost futile to discuss. The Council of Churches will do that. It is quite certain, however, that many men will gamble when they can. It might be better for them if they didn’t. Any moralist will tell you that winning money— hoping to win moneyby mere chance from the tote, or from Tatts, or an “art union" is bad for the character. We know the ideal good citizen is he who never seeks to gain anything except by hard, honest, steady work. But that does not apply to women; oh, dear, no! That method is no doubt admirable, but it is apt to be so frightfully dull. There is no vision in it, no spice of adventure, no scope for the imagination— not enough to satisfy the restless, impatient, neurotic, modern temperament.

“‘a winner.” or even "a consolation,” and can indulge in agreeable thoughts of what would be done with the money! What a blissful and short-lived delusion. But why deprive anyone of it? It’s not done in friendly circles, whatever the killjoys may think and say. One need not argue the point. Women—and men, too do. and will, gamble, even if Gordon Coates does stop our haphazard art unions, or give us real spice in the form of a “Tatts" all of our own under Government control.

Most people agree that the art union craze is bad, or rather unsatisfactory, because they are under no authoritative supervision, and fabulous amounts are set down as expenses, without any guarantee that in taking tickets one is having a chance. If the Government gave us one State lottery a month everyone who has even an ounce of ginger in them, would be happy, and the taxpayer would be relieved. But apparently the Coates Cabinet have not the spunk to initiate such a national lottery, even though it would appease a very mild form of gambling compared with the national totalisator or the suggested betting by telegram. r I 'his, however, is a digression. he censors —to describe them most politely seeing such abnormal signs of growing degeneration in women becoming addicted to the gambling evil. Even allowing that the indulgence must be permitted to the ease-hardened male, it is argued that woman, with her finer instincts, ought to keep away from contamination. Is she not losing her delicacy and her charm when she takes to the pursuit of gain in this materialistic form? Is not this thirst for excitement very bad for her, especially when young and innocent? he argument is all tomfoolery. It’s rotten !

"We have been preaching the equality of the sexes to some purpose in this fair land, and nowadays the modern New Zealand young woman is so like the modern young man that sometimes one can hardly tell the difference, except in dress. Happily the sterner sex still cling to their trousers !

“Miss 1926" has certainly abolished the curves glorified by sculptors and has adopted the figure of a bony boy. with thin and muscular legs. She wears her hair shorter than her brother. She smokes more cigarettes and drinks more cocktails. She practices sports in her own way. Playing in “shorts” and riding astride. The fact is—like it or not. as you please—she has decided to admit that the more interesting activities should not be confined to one sex. She, too, has a taste for adventure, and the hazardous uncertainty that lends zest to existence for those who arc built that way.

in all its forms, and * wherever pursued, diffuses a good deal of genuine, if transient and temporary, happiness to someone. Hundreds of people in New Zealand to-day hold tickets that give them a glimpse of heaven—in expectation. They have their interests —very visionary, but still very expectantin Tatts, art unions, and doubles. Each of them can dream for a few davs that he will draw

Gambling and betting arc just manifestations of this phase for many who cannot accept or obtain romance in "a loftier form” (this expression is used as a concession to the censors). So woman has taken to it as they have to other masculine habits, occupations, amusements and foibles. What will they take on next? Happily the writer is called upon to stop here, and not assume the attributes of a prophet. Tin: Mirror merely reflects the modern tendencies of our national life.