Sporting & Dramatic REVIEW AND Licensed Victuallers’ Gazette. With which is incorporated the Weekly Standard. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 1906. THE NEW SOUTH WALES ANTIGAMBLING BILL.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume XV, Issue 861, 6 September 1906, Page 5

Sporting & Dramatic REVIEW AND Licensed Victuallers’ Gazette. With which is incorporated the Weekly Standard. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 1906. THE NEW SOUTH WALES ANTIGAMBLING BILL.

An event of great interest to sporting men in New South Wales is the Anti-Gambling Bill, the third reading of which was carried by 36 votes to 8. Quite a number of drastic amendments were made in committee, so that the provisions of the Bill are not fully known to us yet. The main features seem tolerably clear, however, and some of them will doubtless cause much indignation among those people chiefly concerned. The Bill provides for a Board to advise the Minister with regard to race meetings, and in this connection one is curious to know what will be the position of the Australian Jockey Club. Although the latter body has governed the sport in New South Wales for the past forty years, the N.S.W. Government apparently has not consulted the committee at all when drawing up the new regulations. Up to the present no Government ever interfered with race affairs, consequently the Jockey Club were supreme, but now its authority appears to be threatened. As a Sydney paper puts it: At the annual meeting of the A.J.C. it was passed that at any race meeting not registered by them, all horses competing will be disqualified. Now, we have the Government on the other hand issuing a license to racecourses and without that license no meetings can be held upon it. The Government also say that so many race meetings can be held on that track in the year, and the number is considerably more in certain cases than the dates granted by the Jockey Club. Now, if the Government say that a race club can hold sixteen meetings in the year, and the Jockey Club fix the limit at nine, which will hold good ?” An amendment was carried by Mr. Griffiths prohibiting betting at sports meetings. This renders betting on racecourses illegal, but it is the intention of the Attorney-General to have such amendments submitted in the Upper House as will remove the ambiguity on this point. It will mean in any case a very heavy blow to the big cash cycling meetings, and will effectually scotch professional foot races. Other amendments fix the number of race days on courses within 40 miles of the Sydney Post Office, at 24 annually; within 15 miles of Newcastle Post Office to 15 annually. Pony meetings within 40 miles of Sydney are limited to 24 annually, and beyond 40 miles to six annually, on any course. These take effect on January 1. Trotting contests are excluded from the definition of a race meeting. A further amendment prevents newspapers from publishing odds relatng to races, but if betting is really to be confined to racecourses, there will be no odds to publish, so the reason for the amendment is not quite clear. This experiment in antigambling legislation will be watched with interest by all who have the best interests of the sport at heart.