Leeds Mercury – Friday 16 December 1927

Betting Test Case.

Not Permissible To Put Slips In Letter-Box.

An important betting case, great interest to backers and bookmakers, was heard the Doncaster West Riding Magistrates yesterday.

It was regarded a test case, the defence being undertaken by the North of England Bookmakers’ Protection Association.

Arthur Harwood, commission agent, and proprietor of a business at Whitworth’s Buildings, Thurnscoe, was fined £50 for using a room for the purpose of persons resorting for betting. His son, Arthur Harwood, jun., for assisting in conducting, was fined £20; and Patrick Noon, who managed the business, was fined £50.

Notice of appeal was given each case. It was stated Mr. C. P. Brutton, for the prosecution, that many people were seen to enter the premises, but large numbers of others put something through the letter-box.

Mr. J. Burrows, of Leeds, for the defence contended it was permissible for anyone to put betting slips through “the letter-box of a bookmakers premises, and call and draw winnings or pay losses alter the racing was over.

The Magistrates held that people going to a house, and putting bets through the letter-box, whether with cash or not, were within the section of the Act forbidding persons to resort to the house for the purpose of betting.