AN ANTI-BETTING ABSURDITY.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume XVII, Issue 965, 3 September 1908, Page 6

AN ANTI-BETTING ABSURDITY.

Touching on the effect the antibetting law has had in New York, an American writer says:—“Here is a sample of officialism. On Friday, at the Brighton Beach, as the horses in one race were parading past the grand stand a gentleman—one of a party of four from a Long Island town —remarked: ‘l’ll bet Cairngorm beats anything you name for the dinners this evening.’ Immediately a policeman arrested him and conveyed him to court, where the magistrate dismissed the case at once and gave a very decided opinion as to the “action of the authorities at the race track. If in a sense it was not serious and inconvenient the situation at the track would be amusing. We have Pinkerton detectives employed by the Jockey Club to carry out the club’s instructions that the law must not be broken; the Pinkertons are closely watched by the Sheriff’s officers, the District Attorney’s detectives keep their eyes on the Sheriff’s men, the regular policemen shadow the District Attorney’s men, and Governor Hughes, afraid that ‘reform’ is not getting a fair deal, has a force of State private detectives to watch the regulars. Yet you can read in the afternoon papers full details of the , opening and, closing prices, and, in fact, .the typiqal yellow sheets vie . with each other, in giving details of, the betting, for their clientele, the pool rooms, and betting dives in the city.”