SECOND READING. (Hansard, 7 May 1874)

THE EARL OF MORLEY

, in moving that the Bill be now read the second time, said, that three years ago a Bill aimed against betting passed through their Lordships' House without opposition, but was withdrawn in the other House. The Bill now before their Lordships had passed through the other House of Parliament with equal unanimity. The Act of 16 & 17 Vict. c. 119—the Act for the suppression of Betting Houses—had two faults, which the present Bill was intended to remove. First, it did not apply to Scotland; and next, while it prohibited the advertising of betting-houses in England and Ireland, it did not prohibit the advertising in England and Ireland of betting-houses kept in Scotland. The consequence was that there had been an emigration of the betting-house keepers from other parts of the United Kingdom to the Kingdom north of the Tweed—and even across the Channel. There were no fewer than 13 small betting-houses in Edinburgh and 28 in Glasgow, which was double the number that there were last year, several of which booked bets of 5s., and some of them bets of even 1s. From these positions these people flooded the country with an enormous number of circulars. He need not state to their Lordships that all the higher-class morning papers, both of the provinces and the metropolis, repudiated such advertisements; but they were accepted by some of the provincial papers and by several of what were known as the "Sporting papers," a higher price being obtained for them in consequence of the action of the higher-class papers in refusing to insert them. In one Dublin paper he found two of those advertisements, one of which occupied 2¼ columns and the other 1¼. The advertisers professed to give an absolute guarantee that those who betted through them must win. It was almost impossible to believe that anyone could be fool enough to believe such professions; but, seeing the extent to which the owners of these Scotch betting-houses advertised, he was afraid that there were people so foolish as to invest with them. He presumed that Scotland would have been included 1808 in the existing Act, only the promoters had believed that the sageness of the Scotch people rendered such a measure unnecessary; but if this Bill passed, the betting-house keepers would not be able to advertise in the United Kingdom, even if they removed their offices to Boulogne. Nothing could be more improper than that advertisements of this class should be daily placed in the hands of shopmen and clerks, domestic servants, small traders, and others. He had heard that the Bill was objected to in some quarters on the ground that it was a proposal for class legislation, and that under its provisions the Post Office would have power to open circulars. Both objections were unfounded. The object of the Bill was the protection of poor persons who were tempted by delusive advertisements to invest small sums, which there was no chance of their ever seeing again. The principal clauses of the Bill were the third and fourth. By the third clause it was enacted that where any letter, circular, telegram, placard, handbill, card, or advertisement, relating to betting, was sent exhibited, or published, the person sending, exhibiting, or publishing, should be subject to the penalties provided in the seventh section of the Act for the Suppression of Betting Houses. The fourth section simply extended that Act, with certain modifications, to Scotland.