_Playing with Gaming-Machines._—The Courts now seem disposed to construe the question of a modicum of skill more severely in this connection as children are so largely affected, and from what has been said above it may be hoped that the automatic machines are doomed. The above remarks, however, with regard to combined skill and chance and restriction of amount, apply here also to a certain extent, especially with regard to their use in clubs. The difficulties will be great of applying such regulations to gambling in private houses until the moral sense of the community becomes more keenly alive to the penalties of sorrow, ruin, and degradation which are the sad sequel of its neglect.
_Lotteries and Sweepstakes._—The Lottery Acts now existing might have been fairly efficient if it were not for the difficulty, delay, and expense in having to obtain in certain cases the leave of the Attorney-General before proceedings can be taken. This especially applies in the matter of newspapers which benefit by advertising the lotteries. They are protected by 8 & 9 Vict. c. 74, the provision in which needs modification. There is still much, however, to be desired in the efficiency of administration, which cannot be fully attained until the farcical practice of allowing the law to be broken for charitable purposes is given up. Some years ago the Scotch authorities openly stated in reply to a remonstrance that in such cases no interference would be made. This lache has been to a large extent followed in England, and when the National Anti-Gambling League pointed out to the late Mr. Adrian Hope, the Secretary for the Hospital for Sick Children in Great Ormond Street, that the great raffles intended to be held at the Coronation Bazaar at the London Botanical Gardens were in contravention of the law, he merely declined to drop them, and said that one of the Judges had bought the first ticket for the chief lottery. Questions had to be asked in the House of Commons before they could be stopped, after the illegality had been acknowledged by Ministers.
To sum up under this head, the Post Office should have increased powers and inducements to destroy lottery matter, and to confiscate and appropriate for the benefit of the Rowland Hill Memorial Fund, in which the Post Office is so much interested, all lottery remittances, whether British or foreign; the question of the Attorney-General’s fiat for prosecutions should be reconsidered; and the police authorities should be stimulated to institute a regular and impartial campaign. How grossly the weapons of the law in regard to lotteries have been neglected may be illustrated by a statement made in a Treasury prosecution at Clerkenwell Police Court in June 1904, to the effect that one of the most important statutes, 4 Geo. IV. c. 60, was extremely difficult to find, not being printed in the ordinary book of statutes, and was not found in any magisterial text-book.