Gambling; Great Britain -- Social life and customs
Colonel TANNETT WALKER, a large employer of labour at engineering works
near Leeds, said that betting was the very worst thing any one could take
to, and did a great deal of harm. The workman very often knew nothing
whatever of horses. His usefulness was destroyed by betting, however
skilful he might be, as so much of his time and thought were taken
up with it. He would favour anything that would put a stop to street
betting. The boys were encouraged to bet in the workshops.
Mr. LAMB, second secretary to the Post Office, said there were 82 special
telegraphists engaged at Doncaster Races; 30,000 private telegrams were
sent off. Gambling in any form was regarded as a most serious offence in
that Department, and any of its servants are thereby rendered liable to
dismissal. Employees were often tempted in the course of their duty while
attending to betting telegrams.
Sir ROBERT HUNTER, solicitor to the Post Office, explained that there was
not the same power over betting as over lottery communications, owing to
an interpretation of the Advertising Act of 1874 confining it to such
betting as was localised in a particular house or place.
The DUKE OF DEVONSHIRE, Minister for Education, had been engaged on
racing for a considerable time. Thought that there was nothing wrong
or immoral in betting. He would very much regret its being stopped: it
would seriously injure the national amusement of horse-racing. He thought
betting the support of racing. Saw nothing wrong in the bookmaker’s
profession, and, in reply to a question as to their taking small sums
from children in poor neighbourhoods, he said he had no knowledge of that
sort of betting. He could not give any opinion about licensing. He did
not know at what point betting was too general.
Mr. ROBERT KNIGHT, J.P., Newcastle, for twenty-nine years secretary of a
Trades Union numbering 50,000 members, had thirty-two years’ experience
of the working classes. Betting was largely on the increase among them,
especially young men and women. In three and a half hours a bookmaker in
South Shields was seen to take 236 bets. Bookmakers went from door to
door inducing women to bet. Some took as little as sixpence. Employers
found that intelligent, concentrated effort cannot be got from minds
absorbed in betting. He would neither employ nor trust men who indulged
in it. The facilities offered by the press are largely responsible.
Betting among the young had become rampant. Lads of bright intellect were
found to develop cunning instead of character. If the betting craze
was not checked the sober youths of Germany would take the reins of the
commercial world. The odds, tips, and bettings news should be abolished
from the newspapers. The Trades Unions endeavoured to stop betting, and
would not appoint a man known to indulge in it to any place of authority
or trust.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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