"Good Bet"

In Socialist Britain last week, a Royal Commission recommended that gambling be made easier for the working class. The commission, headed by former Minister of Health Henry Urmston Willink, ended a two-year investigation by proposing the opening of cash betting offices throughout the country, to be run by licensed bookies.

At present, off-the-course betting is legal only on a credit basis, a system which deliberately favors the well-to-do, discourages the poor from betting. Many licensed bookies are not interested in small accounts; the poor man therefore has his flutter (illegally) with a streetcorner bookie. Said London's Time and Tide: "The distinction was always inder fensible, and short of making all betting illegal--which would be about as effective as prohibition was in America--the commission had no real alternative but to recommend its abolition."

Britain's -L-11,695 ($32,750) probe turned up none of the gambling muck uncovered by the Kefauver committee's similar investigation in the U.S. Reported the commission: "We can find no support for the belief that gambling, provided that it is kept within reasonable bounds, does serious harm either to the character of those who take part . . . their family circle [or] the community generally."

Some churchmen were shocked by the recommendations, but most press comment was favorable. Said the Daily Express: "It acknowledges the freedom of the adult citizen, his good sense and his right to govern his own conduct . . . dispels the notion that gambling in Britain is a dangerous fever or that men starve their children to put cash on the dogs."

The recommendations will be considered when the government gets around to overhauling gambling legislation. "Though this report is a good bet," commented the Daily Mail, "we would not back it to win. The force of custom is very strong, and this document may yet molder in the Whitehall pigeonholes."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.