Gambling; Great Britain -- Social life and customs
It would be useless to confuse the reader’s mind by going through the
statutes relating to betting, other than the Act of 1853, which is the
reformer’s armoury; but it requires to be refurbished and enlarged, and
will then be capable, supplemented by the proposed Street Betting Bill,
of bringing about a great and beneficial change.
What is desirable must be subdivided into what may be considered now
practicable, in accordance with the position approached by public
opinion; and further reforms, to prepare the way for which social
reformers have still much to do.
It may be wise, and save time in the end, to confine attempts at
legislation to three short and simple improvements, viz.: (1) passing
the Street Betting Bill for largely increasing the fines and inflicting
imprisonment for that offence, as unanimously recommended by the Select
Committee of the House of Lords; (2) an amendment of section 7 of the
Betting Act of 1853, subjecting advertisements of foreign betting-houses
to the same penalties as those in the United Kingdom; and altering the
wording of the same, which now only condemns advertisements “whereby
it shall be made to appear,” which words were regretfully held by the
King’s Bench Division in _Ashley and Smith, Ltd._, v. _Hawke_, K.B.D.
1903 (_Sportsman_), not to cover the advertisements of notorious
betting-houses, as the advertisements on their face merely referred
to races, etc., and gave the necessary address for communications and
remittances. Such advertisements have always been considered as dubiously
lawful, and double charges are paid for their insertion. More than one of
the sporting, or rather betting, papers make profits of £5000 to £7000
a year out of them; and the Lord Chief Justice, in his judgment, spoke
of the necessity of legislation, as has been already stated; (3) making
payments of bets in public-houses illegal. A Bill of twenty lines might
cover the whole of the above.
With these three amendments of the law, and Scotland Yard enforcing the
present laws as expounded in the Court of Appeal cases above against the
betting-houses, great progress will be made. The bankruptcy authorities
should take advantage of these decisions to insist upon the return of all
monies sent to bookmakers by debtors within the statute of limitations,
under section 5 of the 1853 Act.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account