view raw text
SUGGESTS AMENDMENT TO LAW New York June 28 District Attorney Charles r Wysong of Nassau county has written a letter to Governor Sulzer suggesting a plan to abolish all betting on horse races at the tracks in this State He would have the Penal Law amenUed so that the making of a wager on a horse race would be a misdemeanor Mr Wysong in his com ¬ munication to the Governor pointed out that the only bet that is illegal In this State is one made on the result of a prizefight He also wrote that under the decision of County Judge James P Nie maun sitting as a committing Magistrate in the cases of persons charged with violating the law by Burns detectives there could be no prosecution unless it could be proved that the takers of such bets were bookmakers under the law In his letter Mr partI Wysong said in part I assume you have received my letter containing a copy of Judge NIemanns opinion before this Might I suggest to you that the Legislature now In session could pass a law similar to section 1712 of the Penal Law which would make it easy to prevent descriptionSection bookmaking of any description Section 1712 provides that a person who bets stakes or wagers money on the result of such tight or encounter or who holds or undertakes to hold money or other property so staked or wagered is guilty of a misdemeanor By substituting the words horse race for fight or encounter our burden lightThe would be comparatively light The District Attorney commenting late on his communication to the Governor said that under the present law as iulerpreted by Justice Niemann the burden of proof that a man is a bookmaker and that therefore his taking a bet is a violation of prosecutionThe the law rests upon the prosecution The District Attorney tried to get Canon Chase ou the telephone to learn the supposed evidence that the latter is said to have obtained against lawbreakers at the track Mr Wysong was in ¬ formed by Canon Chases secretary that the in ¬ teresting data had already been mailed to him Conditions at the track remain about the same Private betting goes on in whispers and it is saiJ that private detectives have been gathering ma ¬ terial for another court move In the absence of August Belmont who is ou his way to Europe James Butler is chairman of the committee rep resenting the four associations which are conduct ¬ ing the racing
