NEWSPAPER COMPETITIONS. (Hansard, 13 February 1929)

§ Major BRAITHWAITE
I beg to move, That leave be given to bring in a Bill to amend the law to permit competitions to be carried on in the newspapers for forecasting the results of football matches. The Bill which I ask leave to introduce refers, in particular, to those competitions which were arranged in connection with the forecasting of the results of football matches. As the House is aware, under a recent decision in the Law Courts persons purchasing a newspaper and filling in the competition form arranged for forecasting the results of football matches, have been deemed to be committing an offence under the Ready Money Football Betting Act of 1920, although the same persons may fill in a 413 cross-word puzzle or a picture guessing competition form under exactly the same conditions and still be within the law. I feel that league football, as the sport of the ordinary workman of this country, should not have been singled out in this way.
In spite of recent disclosures in the Press, league football under the Football Association is conducted in the best regulated and fairest way of any of our national sports, and in these days of industrial depression league football has been, in my opinion, one of the great safety valves of this nation. Millions of people have had a great deal of pleasure and amusement by entering these competitions. They understand the competitions and they follow the clubs concerned, and there is created a friendly rivalry between the various towns and cities of our country. I think it is unfair that all these people should be deprived of something which has given them so much pleasure. I have had thousands of letters from different parts of the country complaining of this decision, and I ask the House to give an opportunity for amending the law and bringing these competitions into line with the others which are now allowed to run in the newspapers.
The provisions of this Bill are that the competitions are made legal, and that no entrance fee can be taken by the newspapers; and in order to safeguard the newspapers from the possibility of fictitious circulation, which has an effect on the advertising value of the newspaper, I should like to make it illegal for one person to send in more than one entry for the current day's issue of such paper. I should also like to provide in this Bill that the purchase of the newspaper does not commit the offence of gambling. If I thought the filling in of a football coupon in a newspaper constituted a form of gambling, I should not be here asking the House to accept a Bill of this kind. I should also like to provide in the Bill that the holding of such competitions in a newspaper does not render that newspaper liable to damages under the decision which was arrived at some time ago in the Law Courts. On those grounds, I ask the House earnestly to consider the views and wishes of many millions of people who have had pleasure in this work, and 414 to give an opportunity for amending the law in this direction.

§ Mr. SCRYMGEOUR
rose—

§ Mr. SPEAKER
Does the hon. Member rise to oppose the Bill?

§ Mr. SCRYMGEOUR
Yes, Sir. I wish to oppose the introduction of this Bill, as I reckon that the proposal is on the same plane as other proposals of a similar character which endeavour to open up this broad way of working upon games of chance and to exploit this opinion which is too readily fastened upon by the cuteness of newspapers in this country, which we know are mostly engaged in anything but an endeavour to uplift the people and advance their best interests. The proposal is one which the law has already met, in so far that very important Press agencies in the country have been decided against in this matter; and while, of course, there is a popularity associated with such schemes, we know that that popularity is not of that value which ought to be really appreciated by all who are concerned about the real progress of the people at large. There is not, as one hon. Member here has suggested, any actual sport in it. It is a matter of coming in upon what is, to a very considerable degree, genuine sport, which, however, is carried out in other ways to a very large extent on a commercialised basis; and the whole scheme with which such a plan is associated is one that is operating in a manner derogatory to the interests of the nation at large.
The Government have already taken steps in connection with betting and gambling by the carrying through of a scheme for the exacting of revenue there-from, and they have also set up a Betting Control Board, all of which is reckoned by the Government to be on a popular basis and likely to help them in the very distressful condition of their prospects at the General Election. But I think there is something far more important than the securing of votes or pandering to mere popularity. I reckon that the nation is confronted with very serious dangers indeed, which call for an intensifying of real convictions concerning the things that ought to be pressed forward. Knowing very well the popularity associated with sport and things 415 of that kind, and how that many people, who exploit the interests of the workers, give presentation cups, championship cups, and the cup is full and running over many a time, and knowing that popularity is employed to a very dangerous degree to the true interests of the Labour movement, I say that the highest duty of this House is to refuse to give this Bill an introduction.