FOOTBALL POOL BETTING AND THE LAW
[To the Editor of TIIE SPECTATOR.] SIR,—The Legislature will be confronted with two special difficulties if it attempts to deal with the present development of football pool betting—apart, of course, from the resolute lobby pressure exerted by vested interests, which frustrated the passing of a section in the Betting and Lotteries Act of -1934. One difficulty, and perhaps the most formidable, is that the pool promoters operate on credit. Credit betting has hitherto been practically confined to people who can bet without serious hardship to those dependent on them if they lose. For this reason credit betting offices have been tolerated by the law—so long, of course, as customers do not resort to them to make their bets. The street bookmaker—whose voca- tion is strictly forbidden, though he is to be found in every town and city in the Kingdom—deals with his customers on a strictly cash basis. Now, and almost suddenly, credit betting is open to all classes. To forbid it to those operating football pools and their customers, and to allow it to continue in the case of the big credit betting bookmakers, operating on a large scale, would in effect be to discriminate even more sharply between rich and poor than the present law does. 'at- discrimination is no doubt benevolent in intention, to
protect the wives and families Of poorer gamblers from real want, but it appears to be strongly - resented.- Possibly -it would be less. resented if ordinary credit betting were further curtailed by law. Any such curtailment, however, would raise hornets' nests against a Government proposing it, and no doubt every member of Parliament considers that there are . enough hornets about already.
The other difficulty is the nature of pool betting, which • entirely -puzzled the House of Lords a few years ago. Each law lord gave a different opinion about it, and one was positive . that it was .not betting at all in the strict legal sense of the - word. He considered that betting involved two parties only. . Conversely, a football pool is not a lottery, for the participator in a lottery absolutely surrenders himself to chance, whereas the gambler in a football pool exercises his skill in picking winning teams. This, however, is a minor difficulty, because • " tote " betting has been recognised by law since 1928 for . horse-races and since 1934 for dog-races. Pool betting is of course conducted on the principle of tote betting, and, whether it is considered a form of betting or a sort of lottery, the process is well understood.
Although the law lords were puzzled how to classify pool betting, they all agreed that the promoters taking 10 per cent. of the pools were not betting, for, whichever horse or dog or football team as the ease might be won, they could not lose. Those who promote lotteries, other than the private sweepstakes and bazaar raffles recently legalised, arc liable to fine or imprisonment. Football pools, however, arc not technically lotteries, though so far as the chances of a big prize are concerned, they hardly differ from lotteries.
The difficulties of dealing with them arc no doubt for- midable. Unless they arc overcome, however, the other checks on gambling arc likely to become ridiculous.-1 am,
Previous page
