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Pay Illinois State Lottery
Small Story About Lottery
The three major bouts of legislation up to 1920 which tried to suppress gambling were drastic in their scope. acecourse inspectors, first appointed in 1921, chased bookmakers off the tracks or worked with police to arrest them. The result was that the calling was driven underground, where it was pursued with even more vigour and enthusiasm. In 1921 there were race-meetings throughout the country on
five days of each week, all attracting large Illinois State Lottery crowds from across the social spectrum. That enthusiasts off-course could neither bet legally, nor learn
of totalisator dividends or receive tips from newspapers, was a source of intense frustration. Those bookmakers moved so easily to fill the void, and exploited it more profitably than they had been able to do before the passing of the anti-gambling laws, was indeed ironic.
By the 1920 bookmakers had an elaborate organization for the rapid transmission of results and dividends. The volume of illegal business grew for both part- and full-time bookmakers. In May 1921 the latter organized a national 'officer' whose sole job, on race-days, was to facilitate the transmission of bets by telephone or telegram through a
central Wellington office to all other bookies' offices throughout the country. He had an initial annual retainer of £500, the funds being donated by participating bookmakers. This was the genesis of the euphemistically named Dominion Sportsmen's Association which grew in strength as the illegal off-course trade increased. The association, which was to represent some 500 fulltime bookmakers over the next 30 years, supplied results to government controlled radio stations, a dubious practice but one to which the police turned a blind eye.
The Lottery Market
Other bookmakers, their touts and agents flouted the law by accosting passers-by on the pavements outside hotels, a long-standing practice which the legislation had failed to arrest. When the police appeared, these men would simply disappear inside. Despite the prohibition, there was still
open betting at sports events. In August 1921, a Free Lance reporter spied Illinois Lottery players and bookmakers in animated conversation near the dressing rooms inside an Auckland rugby ground. Police ncentration on street betting did lead to more prosecutions, but behind closed doors there was a growing market.
The ban on Wowserism publication of tips and dividends in newspapers also made bookmaking more attractive, as clients sought advice and information that
was not otherwise available. The police, of course, were frustrated that illegal betting had spread its tentacles so successf They also found that arresting a bookmaker was barely worth the effort-for two reasons. Firstly, as we have already noted, very few of his clients were prepared to testify against him; he had to be caught in the act of laying a bet for a conviction to even be possible. Secondly, and even more galling to police and judiciary alike, few juries were prepared to convict a bookmaker, no matter how convincing the evidence against him. When Justice Chapman, for example, told a Wellington jury in May 1921 that there was very strong evidence that Matthew Livingstone was bookmaking, and 'that they must remember their oath and not their sympathies', they ignored him. Livingstone was acquitted. Commissioner of Police A. H. Wright complained bitterly in 1922 about the obstacles to prosecuting scams, particularly their ability to be given the option of a jury trial. Wright, like his colleagues, had wanted successful arrests, convictions and jailing of bookmakers to put a stop to the practice, but the 1920 measure was proving a damp squib.
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