SHOULD MEN BET?

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume XVI, Issue 957, 9 July 1908, Page 5

SHOULD MEN BET?

The recognition of the fact that men will find a way to gamble so long as their inclination tends that way, despite any legal attempt to oppose them, appears to be more generally and broad-mindedly acknowledged every day (says the “Referee”); but the increased attendances and. consequently more extensive speculations at race meetings should be accepted as proof of the desire on the part of those who will bet to do so without infringing the laws of the country. When all is said and done, betting is not the heinous offence that some people would make believe, and is a method of both amusement and speculation which is indulged in all over the world by people who are easily as capable of caretaking their moral welfare as are a great number of those whose daily bread appears to be earned by holding forth against it. The Governments of the various States appear to have risen to the occasion and done their best to minimise gambling so far as in their power lay, evidently realising that any further attempt to curtail the freedom and will of the voter with regard to these matters might result in a reaction which would land us back in a worse position that we had been before. A New York writer attributes a deal to the anti-betting movement in that State to Mr. Hearst, who is of opinion that his defeat for the position of Governor was due to the sporting element. It being a recognised fact that people have gambled in some form or other from time immemorial, and will instinctively continue to do so, why not accept the inevitable and allow them to gratify that desire under the least harmful of all conditions, which has been provided by the combined Legislatures of the country, who, under their new Gaming Acts, control and limit the days set apart for racing in this as well as other States ?