uly 12.
The Report of the Royal Commission on Lotteries and Betting has now come to hand. It Jdocumnent well worthy of study by all who desire to get at the! root of the gambling problem. [The arguments have about them Ino trace of the crank. They are not the product of fanatical minds. They reflect, too, the! Judicial balance to be expected from a body presided over by. 80 distinguished a former tember of His Majesty's High Court! Bench as Sir Sidney" Rowlatt. 'The Commission confined its con. clusions to certain facts: the social consequences' of gambling, the considerable spread of the gambling the increased for organised gambling and_by publicity in the Press and else where. The evidence received by the Commission came from all Kinds of organisations in-Jeluding those who indirectly or directly made their incomes.out lof gambling. An effective! unanimity came from these witnesses on two points: (i) the State was not called upon - to restrict private gambling _-between individuals;. (2) "some restrictions should be put upon organised facilities for gambling. The Commission refuses to give! gambling in any_shape the comfort of its modified approval. is not "aware of any. positive advantage that can be claimed for" gambling in moderation, "except in so far as (it) can be regarded as containing some element of amusement." I: is Jon the other hand definitely! lconvineed that since 1928 when the Select Committee on. the Betting Duty reported a steady increase in the prevalence of the habit of betting and indicated the need for curtailing _and modifying the evils of betting,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.