This Act may be cited as the Gaming Amendment Act, 1910, and shall be read together with and deemed part of the Gaming Act, 1908 (hereinafter referred to as the principal Act).

This Act shall come into operation on the thirty-first day of January, nineteen hundred and eleven.

Every person who frequents, loiters, or is in any street for the purpose of betting is guilty of an offence, and is liable on summary conviction to a fine not less than twenty pounds and not exceeding one hundred pounds for a first offence, and to the like fine or to imprisonment for a period not exceeding three months for a second or any subsequent offence, against this section, whether of the same or of a different kind.

Every bookmaker who bets in any street, or in any licensed premises within the meaning of the Licensing Act, 1908, or on any racecourse, whether a race meeting is being held thereon or not, or in any public place as defined by section two of the principal Act, or within the view or hearing of any person in or on any such street, racecourse, or public place, commits an offence, and is liable on summary conviction to a fine not less than twenty pounds and not exceeding one hundred pounds for a first offence, and to the like fine or to imprisonment for a period not exceeding three months for a second or any subsequent offence, against this section, whether of the same or of a different kind.

In this section the terms “betting” and “bet” include the act of any person in betting, wagering, offering or agreeing to bet or wager, paying, receiving, or settling any bet or wager, or offering or agreeing to pay, receive, or settle any bet or wager, whether on his own behalf or on behalf of any other person.

In this section the term “street” means—

Sections twenty-four and twenty-five of the principal Act, and the forms numbered (2) and (3) in the Third Schedule to the principal Act, are hereby repealed.

Section thirty-four of the principal Act is hereby repealed.

Every license issued to a bookmaker under the said section and current at the commencement of this Act shall thereupon cease to have any force or effect.

It shall be the duty of every racing club at any race meeting to use all reasonable and lawful means of preventing bookmakers from plying their calling on the racecourse at that meeting, and if the Minister of Internal Affairs is satisfied that any racing club has wilfully or negligently failed to comply with this section he shall revoke the license of that club, and shall refuse to issue any further license to that club for a period of one year after the date of such revocation.

In this section the term “license” means a license to use the totalisator under the principal Act, or a license granted under the Race Meetings Act, 1909.

Any bookmaker who on any racecourse acts in breach of section two of this Act, and who, after being warned by any agent or servant of the racing club having the use or control of that racecourse, or by any constable, does not desist from so acting, may be forthwith removed from the racecourse by any such agent or servant, or by any constable.

Any person so removed shall not on the day of such removal re-enter the racecourse, and if he does so re-enter he may, without warrant, be arrested by any constable and taken before a Magistrate or any two Justices, and shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding fifty pounds, or to imprisonment for a period not exceeding one month.

This section shall extend and apply to every racecourse, whether it is or is not in the occupation of the racing club having the use or control thereof, and whether it is or is not subject to any right of public use or entry; but nothing in this section shall be so construed as to limit or take away the right of any racing club to exclude or remove any person from any racecourse of which that club is the occupier and which is free from any right of public use or entry.

Every license issued by the Minister of Internal Affairs under section fifty of the principal Act in respect of any year after the thirty-first day of July, nineteen hundred and eleven, shall be issued in respect of a single race meeting, and shall specify the number of days on which the totalisator may be used at that meeting.

The aggregate number of days on which the totalisator is so authorized to be used throughout New Zealand in any year after the thirty-first day of July, nineteen hundred and eleven, shall not exceed two hundred and fifty.

The number of days on which the totalisator is so authorized to be used at any one race meeting shall not exceed four.

A race meeting at which the totalisator is so authorized to be used on four days shall not extend over a longer period than eight consecutive days, and a race meeting at which the totalisator is so authorized to be used on three days shall not extend over a longer period than six consecutive days, and a race meeting at which the totalisator is so authorized to be used on two days shall not extend over a longer period than four consecutive days; and on the expiry of any such maximum period the license to use the totalisator shall lapse:

Provided that when at any race meeting a racing club is compelled by inclement weather or any extraordinary circumstance to postpone any racing to a later day it shall be lawful for the club to extend that race meeting over such longer period as is so rendered necessary.

The Governor in Council may make regulations as to the grant of such licenses and as to the conditions on which they may be issued.

In this section the term “year” means a year commencing on the first day of August.

Paragraph (a) of section fifty of the principal Act, and section fifty-one of that Act, are hereby repealed.

For the purpose of determining the racing clubs to which licenses are to be granted under section fifty of the principal Act in the year commencing on the first day of August, nineteen hundred and eleven, and the number of days on which the use of the totalisator is to be authorized by each of those licenses, the Governor in Council may appoint a Commission of five persons, who shall make such inquiries as they think fit as to the aforesaid matters, and shall report to the Governor their opinion thereon:

Provided that the number of days on which the totalisator may be used during the year at racing and trotting meetings shall not exceed two hundred and fifty; each class of racing to be reduced proportionately to the number of days on which the totalisator was used by each class during the twelve months ending on the thirty-first day of July, nineteen hundred and ten.

In determining the clubs to which licenses shall be granted, consideration shall be given to the claims of those clubs which use the totalisator at one meeting only in any year.

For the purposes of any such inquiries the Commission shall have and may exercise all the powers of a Commission under the Commissions of Inquiry Act, 1908, and shall be deemed to be a Commission appointed under the authority of that Act.

All licenses granted, by the Minister of Internal Affairs in the year commencing on the first day of August, nineteen hundred and eleven, shall be granted by him in accordance with the report of the said Commission, so far as that report is in accordance with the provisions of this Act.

Nothing in this section shall take away or in any manner affect the powers of the Minister of Internal Affairs to revoke any license granted in the said year, or to grant or refuse in his absolute discretion any license in any subsequent year.

Not more than eight races shall be run on any one day at any race meeting.

If at any race meeting any race is run in breach of this section, every member, officer, agent, or servant of the racing club having control of that race meeting shall, unless he proves that he was not a consenting party to that breach, be guilty of an offence punishable on summary conviction by a fine not exceeding fifty pounds.

No investment on the totalisator shall be received otherwise than in money, bank-notes, or cheque before or at the time of the investment.

No investment on the totalisator shall be received from any person under the age of twenty-one years.

If any member, officer, agent, or servant of a racing club knowingly receives or registers or otherwise takes into account, or permits or authorizes to be received, registered, or taken into account, any investment on the totalisator made by any person under the age of twenty-one years, or made otherwise than in accordance with this section, he shall be guilty of an offence, and shall be liable to a fine not exceeding one hundred pounds.

Every person who by falsely representing himself as being of the age of twenty-one years or upwards is permitted by any member, officer, agent, or servant of a racing club in charge of or operating any totalisator to make an investment on the totalisator is liable to a fine not exceeding fifty pounds.

Subsection four of section twenty-six of the principal Act is hereby amended by inserting, before the words “bicycle-races,” the words “coursing-matches, pigeon-shooting matches, inanimate shooting contests.”

The Governor may by Order in Council declare that the provisions of the principal Act and of all other Acts prohibiting lotteries shall not apply to the Art Union of London, being a body corporate established by Royal Charter in the United Kingdom for the advancement of the fine arts, or to any other institution or association established with the like objects in any place out of New Zealand.

Any such Order in Council may be at any time revoked.

So long as any such Order in Council remains in force the body corporate, institution, or association to which it relates shall be exempt from the provisions of the principal Act and of any other Act with respect to the prohibition of lotteries.