'A many-headed hydra': New Zealand Baptists and the Gambling Monster, 1890-1940

Abstract

At the turn of the twentieth century New Zealand Baptists were at
the forefront of a massive public campaign to suppress gambling. In
alliance with other Protestant churches and women’s groups, they
achieved considerable legislative success. By 1911 bookmakers were
condemned to legal exile and the totalisator very nearly followed. But
those victories were short-lived. From World War One onwards the
anti-gambling forces suffered one defeat after another as the state
gradually dismantled what had become a very tight regulatory regime.
This paper traces Baptist involvement in the debate and examines the
reasons for both the early success and the ultimate failure of this
campaign. It argues that Baptists and their allies were defeated by the
state’s reliance on the revenue it drew from gambling, by the patent
failure of legislation to suppress the practice, and – perhaps most
importantly of all – by the style of their campaign.