to serious objections. In Australia, as the number of bookmakers is
comparatively few, it is possible for the racing clubs, which grant
the licences, to exercise a strict supervision and control. In this
country, where the number of bookmakers is so much greater, it would
be practically impossible for the Jockey Club to undertake the duty of
licensing, and, if the work were undertaken by the State, it would mean
the legal recognition of the bookmaker and necessitate the making of
betting debts recoverable by law.
15. The Committee after mature consideration do not think it would be
desirable to legalise betting in this manner, and are also of the opinion
that the establishment of such a system would rather increase than lessen
the amount of betting prevalent at the present day.
16. The latter objection can also, of course, be brought with equal truth
against the “Pari Mutuel,” as the absolute fairness of the “Totalisator”
system of betting is a protection to the small bettor, who might
otherwise not care to risk his money with a bookmaker.
17. In some of the Australian Colonies, in India, and in France this
system has been adopted, and is said to work satisfactorily. In France
the money invested annually in this way amounts to between six and seven
millions sterling. Two per cent of this sum is given to public charities,
and one per cent goes to the Minister of Agriculture and is devoted to
the encouragement of horse-breeding and to other similar purposes. The
Committee, however, fear that the evil of adopting this system would by
its encouragement of the gambling instinct far outweigh any gain that
might accrue, and therefore cannot recommend it.
18. It has been proved conclusively to the Committee that the practice
of betting in the streets has increased very much of late years, and is
the cause of most of the evils arising from betting among the working
classes.
The fact that bookmakers can ply their trade in the open street, and lie
in wait to catch working men in their dinner hour outside factories and
workshops in order to induce them to bet, is undoubtedly a great source
of evil.
19. Evidence has also been brought before the Committee to show that
street bookmakers bet not only with men, but also with women and children.
20. At the present time such offences can only be dealt with as
“obstruction” under various local Acts, or under particular bye-laws in
each town, the penalty in either case and the powers of the police being
inadequate to check the practice.
21. When a street bookmaker is convicted 25 times in four years and is
able to pay £137:8s. in fines and costs (to take a typical example of
many cases which have been brought to the notice of the Committee), it is
obvious that the profits of his calling must be very great, and that the
penalties provided by the law to restrain his trade are not sufficiently
strong.
22. The Committee, therefore, recommend that, in view of the acknowledged
evils of this form of betting, there should be further legislation,
enabling Magistrates to send bookmakers to prison without the option of
a fine for the first offence, who have been convicted of betting in the
streets with boys or girls, or otherwise inducing them to bet.
The Committee further recommend that bookmakers convicted of betting in
the streets should be liable to a fine of £10 for the first offence, £20
for the second offence, and that for any subsequent offence it should be
within the discretion of the Magistrate either to impose a fine of not
more than £50 or to send the bookmaker to prison without the option of a
fine. The Committee also recommend that the police should be given the
same power of summary arrest which they possess in cases of obstruction
of the highway.
23. The Committee recommend that the following amendments should be made
in the Betting Houses Act of 1853:—
(i.) That in view of the uncertainty which has arisen since
the decision of the Kempton Park case as to what constitutes
a “place” within the meaning of the Act, further legislation
should make it quite clear that bookmakers are prohibited from
carrying on their business in public-houses or in any public
place.
(ii.) That the meaning of “resorting thereto,” that is, to a
betting-house, in Section 1 should be extended so as to include
persons making bets by correspondence or through an agent.
(iii.) That, if thought necessary, having regard to recent
decisions, it should be made clear that it is an offence under
Section 1 for persons to use an office in the United Kingdom
for obtaining the receipt of money elsewhere, whether within or
without the United Kingdom, or for the proprietor of the office
to permit such user.
(iv.) That Section 7 should be extended so as to include the
advertisement in this country of any betting-house within the
meaning of the Act which is kept abroad.
24. The Committee further recommend that the Betting Act of 1874 should
be extended to the advertising of information or advice to be obtained
from any person or at any place, though it may not come within the
description of a betting-house within Section 1 of the Act of 1853, and
whether within or without the United Kingdom.
25. The Committee recommend that the Betting and Loans (Infants) Act
1892 (Lord Herschell’s Act) should be extended to ready-money betting
with infants, that is to say, the receipt of money from an infant as
consideration for a bet to be made with such infant.
26. The Committee recommend that on any race-course bookmakers should
only be allowed to carry on their business within definite rings and
enclosures.
27. Various witnesses have given evidence as to the prevalence of betting
at athletic meetings, and to the difficulty which owners of athletic
grounds have in preventing a practice which they with justice consider
opposed to the best interests of amateur sport.
28. Since the decision in the Kempton Park case, it has been impossible
for the police to stop bookmakers carrying on their trade at athletic
meetings, except at the direct request of the proprietors of the ground.
29. The Committee, therefore, recommend that on any race-course or other
ground on which a sport is being carried on, where a printed notice is
publicly exposed by the responsible authorities to the effect that “No
betting is allowed,” a bookmaker who continues to bet shall be liable to
summary arrest and a fine.
30. It has been suggested in evidence before the Committee that powers
should be given to the Postmaster-General and his principal assistants in
Scotland and Ireland, to open all letters supposed to contain coupons or
betting circulars sent from abroad.
In this connection the Committee have received valuable evidence
from Mr. Lamb, C.B., C.M.G., and Sir Robert Hunter, on behalf of the
Postmaster-General, which makes it impossible for them to recommend the
proposed suggestion.
31. The Committee are, however, of the opinion that the same power as the
Postmaster-General already possesses to stop letters sent in the open
post relating to lotteries should be given to him to stop circulars
relating to coupon competitions, or advertisements of betting commission
agents and sporting tipsters.
32. The Committee do not consider that it would be possible for the
Postmaster-General to make any distinction between the facilities
afforded to betting telegrams and other telegrams.
II
LORD DAVEY’S STREET BETTING BILL 1903
A Bill intituled “An Act to amend the Betting Acts 1853 and
1874, and for other purposes.”
Be it enacted by the King’s most Excellent Majesty, by and with the
advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in
this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as
follows:—
1. The word “resorting” in section one of the Betting Act 1853, and this
Act, shall include applying by the agency of another person or by letter,
telegraph, telephone, or other means of correspondence, and the word
“resort” in section seven of the said Act, and in this Act, shall have
the same meaning.
2. The provisions of section three of the Betting Act 1853 shall extend
and apply to any person opening, keeping, or using, within the United
Kingdom, any house, office, room, or place for the purpose of any money
or valuable thing being received by or on behalf of the keeper of any
betting-house or office situate either within or without the United
Kingdom.
3. The provisions of section seven of the Betting Act 1853 shall extend
and apply to any person exhibiting or publishing, or causing to be
exhibited or published, any placard, handbill, card, writing, or other
advertisement whereby it shall appear that any house, office, room,
or place is opened, kept, or used either within or without the United
Kingdom for the purposes in the said section mentioned or referred to, or
any of them, and to any person who shall invite other persons to resort
to any house, office, room, or place either within or without the United
Kingdom for the purposes aforesaid or any of them: Provided that, if
it appear that any such advertisement or invitation has been published
in any registered newspaper inadvertently and without knowledge on the
part of the proprietor or manager of the newspaper of the nature of the
business advertised or the meaning of the contents of the advertisement,
the penalty may be remitted by the court.
4. (1) Any person exercising the business of a bookmaker or betting
agent by betting or offering to bet with other persons or inciting other
persons to bet with him, or receiving money or other valuable thing as
consideration for any bet, or paying or settling any bets in any street
or other public place, or any place to which the public have unrestricted
access, or any house licensed for the sale of intoxicating liquors, shall
be guilty of a misdemeanour, and shall be liable, if convicted for the
first offence, to a fine not exceeding ten pounds, and for the second
offence to a fine not exceeding twenty pounds, and for any subsequent
offence, if convicted on indictment, to a fine not exceeding fifty pounds
or to imprisonment, with or without hard labour, for a term not exceeding
six months, without the option of a fine, and, if convicted on a summary
conviction, to a fine not exceeding thirty pounds or to imprisonment,
with or without hard labour, for a term not exceeding three months,
without the option of a fine: Provided always, that if a person be
convicted under this section of betting with any person under the age of
sixteen years or receiving money from or paying money to any such person
or inciting any such person to bet with him he shall be liable for the
first and every subsequent offence to the maximum penalty or imprisonment
hereinbefore imposed for the third and subsequent offences.
(2) All books, cards, papers, and other articles connected with such
betting as aforesaid shall be deemed to be instruments of gaming, and
any person so offending as aforesaid shall be deemed to be a rogue
and vagabond within the meaning of fifth George the Fourth, chapter
eighty-three, and shall be subject to be arrested and searched in
accordance with the provisions in that behalf therein contained.
(3) Any person who appears to the court to be under the age of sixteen
years shall for the purpose of this section be deemed to be under that
age unless the contrary be proved.
(4) For the purpose of this section, the word “street” shall have the
same meaning as in the Public Health Act 1875.
5. The proprietors or persons having the control of any area within which
sports are carried on may exhibit at the entrance or in some conspicuous
place within the same, notices that betting is prohibited within the said
area or some part thereof, and, in that case, any person who shall hold
himself out as ready to bet with other persons, or incite other persons
to bet with him, within the area where betting is so prohibited, shall
be guilty of an offence under this Act, and shall be liable to the same
penalties as he would have been under this Act if he had been convicted
of betting in the street.
6. Any person who knowingly receives money from an infant as
consideration for a bet to be made with him shall be guilty of an offence
within section one of the Betting and Loans (Infants) Act 1892, and
shall be liable to the penalties imposed by that section, and the other
provisions of the said Act shall be applicable to him.
7. (1) The penalties imposed by this Act may be recovered by proceedings
under the Summary Jurisdiction Acts, and, in Scotland, in the manner
provided by section four of the Betting Act 1874, save where otherwise
provided; and, in Scotland, “indictment” has the same meaning as in the
Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1887.
(2) The provisions as to arrest and search contained in Statute of
fifth George the Fourth, chapter eighty-three, shall, by this Act, be
applied to offences under sections four and five of this Act committed in
Scotland.
8. In this Act—
The word “bookmaker” means a person exercising the business of
betting with persons resorting to him for the purpose:
The word “betting agent” means a person acting as agent for a
bookmaker or for making bets between any two persons.
9. This Act may be cited as the Betting Act 1903, and shall be read with
the Betting Acts 1853 and 1874.
NOTE.—Lord Davey has just introduced another Bill entitled
“An Act for the Suppression of Betting in Streets and other
Public Places” (Eyre and Spottiswoode, London, ½d.). It is a
very valuable measure, but has been confined for good reasons
to offences coming under the title of Street Betting. In
any further legislation it will be necessary to bring the
advertisements of Betting Houses, the proprietors of which call
themselves Commission Agents, whether British or Foreign, under
such provisions as those of the Betting Act 1853 (section 7),
as pointed out by the Lord Chief Justice.
III
SUMMARY OF LORDS’ COMMISSION
HOUSE OF LORDS SELECT COMMITTEE ON BETTING
EXCERPTS FROM EVIDENCE
WITNESSES: Mr. JOHN HAWKE, Honorary Secretary, National Anti-Gambling
League, and Mr. G. H. STUTFIELD, Counsel for the Jockey Club, and for the
Bookmakers and Street Bookmakers.
Mr. HAWKE gave evidence as to the great increase during late years,
especially in street betting at starting prices, and newspaper coupon
betting; also as to betting at athletic sports and in public-houses; as
to the bye-laws being passed by local authorities on street betting, and
the enormous scale upon which coupons are carried on, one proprietor of
an insignificant newspaper receiving between £2000 and £3000 a week in
postal orders, etc., as acknowledged by himself in evidence. After his
conviction his newspaper was advertising the business as continued from
Holland.
Mr. STUTFIELD (Q. 299) said he believed that artisans of all ages and all
classes, including women, put their small coins on horses through the
street bookmakers.
He did not think (Q. 300, etc.) that such backers—he could not say about
the children—required protection against being over-matched by the
bookmakers.
He did not see any reason in legal principle (Q. 435-36) why foreign
coupon houses should be allowed to advertise in English papers, but he
did not think it would do any good to prohibit it.
He agreed that all, or nearly all, such betting as street betting was now
done at starting prices (Q. 308-9), guaranteed by the bookmaker to the
customers by the publication in newspapers of the starting-price odds
(Q. 315-16), but he did not think (Q. 266) its prohibition would stop
starting-price betting, as he expected that bookmakers would form some
plan to reassure their clients (Q. 269) as to their being fairly dealt
with.
He considered that a result of the Kempton Park case was that it was
no infringement (Q. 475-76) of the Betting Act of 1853 for bookmakers
to carry on their business in athletic sports grounds, and that under
that decision (Q. 573) public-houses may practically become betting
exchanges, and sometimes do. The Kempton Park case did not decide that
the race-course ring could not be a place under the Act, but that it was
not used by a person in the position of an occupier or owner (Q. 447-53).
He did not think that new forms and new kinds of betting should be dealt
with in the same way as the 1853 Act dealt with what existed at that
time; and he did not advocate any extension of it (Q. 443-44), as he did
not consider that it was really intended to suppress betting (Q. 443) but
that it may have done a certain amount of good in preventing crowds of
people resorting to a particular house and creating scandal (Q. 438).
He did not, however, consider that the betting in public houses was very
desirable (Q. 517), and would amend the Licensing Act. He did not think
that bye-laws could deal with licensed houses, but that they might put
down betting in streets and public places (Q. 602-3).
He said that if the bookmaker were suppressed there would be no betting
(Q. 535-36), as he thought occasional private bets between individuals
without a bookmaker could not be satisfactory (Q. 532).
With regard to the _friendly_ actions in which Mr. Stutfield had been
engaged as counsel on behalf of the betting men, viz. the _Kempton Park_
case, _Stoddart_ of _Sporting Luck_ against his printers, the _Argus
Printing Co._, and _Thomas_ v. _Sutters_ (the street bookmaker’s appeal
against the bye-law), he maintained that there was nothing improper about
them (Q. 411, 552, 561).
Mr. HAWKE also gave evidence as to the corruption of the public services
and British sports by the professional betting system, and of its
disastrous effects, especially among the wage-earning classes. Amongst
the records of his Society taken from the courts of law in five and a
half years were 80 suicides, 321 embezzlements, and 191 bankruptcies, the
witness pointing out reasons for believing that these numbers were very
much below the true totals.
Mr. HAWKE said that his Society held the same opinion as that published
by Sir Fitzjames Stephen (author of the _Digest of the Criminal Law_) in
the _Nineteenth Century Magazine_, July 1891, who said that the business
of a betting agent was carried on in defiance of the general body of the
law, and added, “The existence of such a person appears to me to be an
insult to the law.” The National Anti-Gambling League made the following
recommendations, based upon a study of the question lasting over eight
years:—
_Street and Public Place Betting._ Increased fines and imprisonment.
_Newspaper Coupon Betting._ Making it illegal to publish
Advertisements of English
and foreign betting-houses.
_Tipsters’ Circulars._ Making illegal to issue.
_Paying Bets in Public-houses._ Making illegal.
_Areas controlled by Private Amending the Act of 1853 if
Proprietors._ the _Powell_ v. _Kempton Park_
case should be accepted as
the correct construction of
the Act.
_Publication of the Betting Making illegal.
Odds (S.P. or Ante-post)._
_Trade of Professional Betting._ Making illegal.
Colonel FLUDYER (commanding Scots’ Guards), Chairman of Tattersall’s
Committee, said that they spent a great deal of time in adjusting betting
disputes. He advocated licensing bookmakers who plied their trade away
from the race-course, but leaving things at races as they are.
CHIEF CONSTABLE OF MANCHESTER said that the increase in betting was
chiefly among artisans and the working classes generally, resulting in
neglect of wives and children, disregard for parents, becoming careless
and indifferent in their occupations, and frequent embezzlements from
their employers. Betting was general at athletic meetings in the
Manchester district, many of them depending on it for financial success.
The Kempton Park decision had prevented police action. In many instances
competitors perform only to suit the books of the betting men. Street
betting was the most pernicious form of the evil. Some publicans pay
street bookmakers to carry on in proximity to their houses. He advocated
a large fine and imprisonment for street offenders. Incitements to
betting in newspapers should be restrained, and the transmission by post
of betting matter should be made illegal.
Sir ALBERT DE RUTZEN, chief Metropolitan Police Magistrate, spoke with
twenty-five years’ experience of the Bench in saying that more mischief
was brought about by betting than by almost any other cause, especially
street betting, which could very well be put down if proper steps were
taken. He would increase the fine for a second offence, and for the third
treat a bookmaker as a rogue and vagabond under the Vagrants Act. From
personal knowledge he could say that the evil arising from betting was as
deep-seated as it was possible to be. In cases where persons prosecuted
for embezzlement and betting was mentioned as the cause, his Court was in
the habit of making inquiries, which invariably confirmed the statements.
With regard to the Kempton Park case, he could not understand how they
were not committing an offence on the race-course while they were
condemned for doing the same thing in public-houses.
Mr. HORACE SMITH, Metropolitan Police Magistrate, said he entirely
concurred with what Sir A. de Rutzen had said with regard to the need
for more repressing laws. Where the crime had been one of fraud or
embezzlement he had invariably found that betting had been at the bottom
of it.
Mr. LUKE SHARP, Official Receiver for Birmingham, gave evidence upon
betting as a cause of bankruptcy.
MASTER OF HARROW: Betting in the school was largely due to the parents,
who encouraged it. It was chiefly in the form of sweepstakes on big
races. They also suffered by circulars from foreign betting-houses, which
the Post Office transmitted.
F. W. SPRUCE, a betting man, thought that the number of bookmakers had
greatly increased, that the trade would be improved and street betting
reduced by licensing, but that otherwise there should be free trade in
professional betting.
JAMES SUTTERS, another betting man, also advocated licensing. He thought
that street betting might with advantage be restrained, but considered it
a very respectable trade, although he agreed that it was not becoming
for women.
Mr. CHARLES GOULD, J.P., Epsom, had complained to the Home Office
of the inadequacy of the police force sent to Epsom Races. The last
communication he had received was to the effect that the Home Secretary
had been informed that as there were several thousands of these dishonest
betting men, it would be impossible to provide sufficient police
protection.
Mr. RUSSELL ALLEN, managing proprietor of the _Manchester Evening News_,
gave evidence as to the harm done by the betting press, particularly the
halfpenny papers, with their racing editions, which conduced largely
to the class of betting done in the street by working men, concerning
which he read letters from employers of labour attributing fraud and
embezzlement to their work-people betting. Great numbers of bets were
also made inside the works. His own newspaper had given up tips and
tipsters’ advertisements, and had suffered accordingly. It was not
prudent for a newspaper to go beyond that single-handed. If starting
prices were made illegal of publication for all alike, it would have a
great effect.
Superintendent SHANNON, of the L Division, Metropolitan Police, had had
great experience of the evils of street betting. Last year[14] in Lambeth
441 persons had been proceeded against. They were fined over £2000 in
all. One man was fined sixteen times in the year. Every large firm’s
employees in South London were waited on by one or more bookmakers. All
the bookmakers employed scouts to give them warning.
Superintendent WELLS, of the Limehouse Division, said there had been
a great increase in street betting in East London in the last few
years. One man was fined twenty-eight times and one twenty-seven. The
bookmakers took up their stands outside the railway stations and
factories, and in the busy streets. They were thus enabled to catch the
workmen going to or from their work.