The Gisborne Standard AND COOK COUNTY GAZETTE Published Every Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday Morning. Saturday, January 18, 1890. RACING AND “SPIELERS.”

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume III, Issue 405, 18 January 1890, Page 2

The Gisborne Standard AND COOK COUNTY GAZETTE Published Every Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday Morning.

Saturday, January 18, 1890. RACING AND “SPIELERS.”

Be just and fear not; Let all the ends thou aim’st at be thy country’s, Thy God’s, and truth’s.

The large amount of racing which the district has indulged in lately, and is about to indulge in next week, has made one evil more prominent than usual—that is, the encouragement which is given to a small army of rascals who are too laxyjo try and earn their living by manual labor, and instead work upon the gullibility of human nature.

Now, we are not going to argue that the police should step in and prevent the continuance of these racecourse games, or that the law should be in any way appealed to ; but we commend the conaidderation of the question by the racing clubs, who have full power to act without any formalities having first to be gone through. Anyone who during the last two race days took the trouble to closely watch the progress of the gambling machines on the flat must have arrived at the conclusion that not only do they result in much harm to the district, but that the racing club itself must have been an actual loser. One man alone must have cleared about a hundred pound in the two days, and the amount of his commission only would, if put through the totalisator,have yielded to the club nearly as much as the revenue they would get from the whole body of “spielers.” Then, again, the value of the booths must be greatly lessened by the amount of small cash that finds its way into the pockets of the “ spielers,” for it is no exaggeration to say that there were some individuals on the course who actually denied themselves the luxury of a sandwich to appease their hunger because they had eased themselves of all their spare cash. The general experience in regard to these “ spielers” is that if they do well in a district they leave very little in return for what they have made out of it, but if they happen to do badly those people who trust them with a feed may consider themselves fortunate if they ever get paid. Without reckoning upon the Park races the “ spielers,” as they are called, must take away from the district some hundreds of pounds in clear cash, and if they are permitted to the Park the sum will be largely increased. This money, as a rule, is not derived from those who can well afford to lose it. It comes mainly from those who have saved a little cash to enjoy themselves with and who lose their better judgment when they see, as they imagine, good chances of increasing their funds. A great proportion of the money would in the ordinary course of things be set in circulation among tradesmen and re-act to the benefit of everyone in the place. A large amount of it would find its way to the totalisator, and while to the unobservant it may not seem that there would be any advantage in allowing one form of gambling to gain at the expense of another form, it cannot be denied that if people will gamble the totalisator is the most fair and square instrument that can be employed. A man goes and backs his choice, and knows that so far as the machine is concerned there is no chance of his being swindled. He knows that a certain commission will be deducted from winnings, but he is satisfied that the profitswill be devoted to legitimate purposes, the encouragement of honest racing. When a person invests in the totalisator he is assured that he, is not encouraging a host of disreputable characters whogain their living by fleecing the unthinking. It is then to the interest of the clubs that we appeal. If we must have racing—and in any British community it always does exist—let it be freed, as far as possible from the element which does so much to turn thinking people against sport; let it no longer be said that for several weeks in the year Gisborne is made the hunting ground for some of the worst class of loafing scoundrels that are the bane of the colony. It is time the racing clubs for their own sake put a stop tp it, and we hope that the Gisborne Club will in no way tolerate the undesirable visitors. If races cannot be run without the institution of some little side-shows for enabling people to get rid of their money there surely can be found local men whom people know they can trust, and who do not require the constant supervision of a policeman to prevent them trying on hanky-panky games upon the innocents by whom they are surrounded.