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Then, too, a class will be created whose livelihood will be dependent upon the results of sporting events. Persons so situated will have an interest in endeavouring to control those results, and efforts in that direction can reasonably be anticipated. Then, finally, the mere presence of licensed bookmakers operating contemporaneously with the totalizator will afford to unscrupulous individuals opportunities to resort to questionable practices in order to inflate their winnings from bookmakers., 90. It would be a dangerous thing, in any event, to give a legal character to the activities of men or of a body of men who, for years, have persisted in earning their livelihood in defiance of the law and at the risk of often-threatened and sometimes imposed imprisonment. We reprobate the suggestion that the State should surrender to the difficulty of suppressing illegal bookmaking and embark upon a policy of appeasement by licensing it. ' That course, we consider, would be discreditable. Our views in this respect coincide with those of Sir Alexander Cockburn when the licensing of the betting-shops was suggested in England in 1853 as an alternative to suppression. 91. For the reasons we have given, we are emphatically opposed to the licensing, in any form, of bookmakers. Few of the objections to which we have adverted can be raised against the operation of the totalizator. Its presence on the course no doubt does operate as an inducement to those on the course to bet. It may induce people to go to the course for the purpose of betting ; but it never canvasses and it never solicits business. Its operations are carried on in the public view, and it has no personal interest to subserve. In addition, it provides a sure, source of revenue to the State and an equally sure source of revenue to the racing clubs, which are, thereby enabled to maintain stakes at a reasonable level and to provide and maintain amenities for the enjoyment and comfort of the public. OFF-COURSE TOTALIZATOR BETTING RECOMMENDED 92. The conclusion is thus unescapable, that if a system of off-course betting can be devised which will insure that the moneys staked go through the totalizator, the interests of honesty will be subserved, active solicitation into the habit of betting will be eliminated, the interests of the sport of racing will be advanced, the greater comfort of the race-going public will be secured, and the payment of taxation made certain. It may be that no system as complete in its coverage and as convenient to the great body of off-course bettors as that at present afforded by- the illegal bookmakers can be devised. The provision, however,- of as good a system as is possible, reinforced by a resolute suppression of illegal bookmaking, should be productive of some good results, and, as experience is, gained, the system can be extended and improved.
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