Publicans welcome the new laws

MITCHAM publicans welcome the new betting and gaming laws allowing small bets to be placed on bar games.

But some point out that it merely makes legal something that OH been going on for years.

Licensee of the Red Lion, Colliers Wood, Mr. Frank Clements, said this week: “I am all for it. We will now be able to organise whist drives and housey-housey for money.

“What I do think is ridiculous is that you can’t place a bet on a horse in the bar. To do that you have to go outside.”

Licensee of the Beehive, Commonside East, Mitcham, Mr. A. Pays, said it would clear up a lot of underhand practices.

Mr. William Lewis of the White Hart thinks it will make little difference to his customers. “What I am against,” he said “are the one arm bandits (slot machines).”

source: Mitcham News & Mercury, 6th January, 1961, page 1.