Debate on The Gaming (Amendment) Act

Official report · Assembly of SchwartzistanSession 1974 · col. 15971

The Speaker: The Order of the Day is the third reading of the Bill. The Minister has the floor.

Gisela Ebner (Minister of Justice): I beg to move the third reading of the Bill, and I shall be brief. The Bill tidies a corner of the code that the courts have complained of for a generation. The Bill amends The Gaming Act, which the House will remember passing, and amends it in one particular only. I move.

Jonas Sachmikel (The Capital District; The Workers' Front): Mr. Speaker, The mills of Kessel will feel this Bill before the Ministry does. I say so now so that nobody may say afterwards that they were not told. I have no quarrel with the Bill except that it comes twenty years late. The members for The Capital District have met and are of one mind on the Bill, which does not happen often. My party will vote for the Bill. [Interruption.]

Paul Bortin (The Capital District; The Assembly Union): Mr. Speaker, The liberty of the subject is a large phrase for a small Bill, but I use it, because the Bill is small and the liberty is not. I have no quarrel with the Bill except that it comes twenty years late. My constituents in The Capital District wrote to me about the Bill, all 4 of them, and they were against it until they read it. I support the third reading.

Klaus Pfeil (The Capital District; The Assembly Union): Mr. Speaker, In The Capital District, which I have the honour to sit for, the Bill will be read at the market cross and understood by half. The liberty of the subject is a large phrase for a small Bill, but I use it, because the Bill is small and the liberty is not. I read the clause. Comes into force on 1 January 1975. The courts have asked for the Bill and the courts should have it. I shall not divide the House on it. [The Line!]

Otto Brenn (Norrfeld; The Continuity Party): Speaker, Nothing in the Bill disturbs the record. The Continuity Party asks only that the register be kept as it has always been kept. The people of Norrfeld will ask what it costs them, and I should like to be able to tell them. I have no quarrel with the Bill except that it comes twenty years late. The schedule is plain enough. Comes into force on 1 January 1975. I support the Bill. [Interruption.]

Andrea Honzel (Norrfeld; The Assembly Union): Mr. Speaker, The people of Norrfeld will ask what it costs them, and I should like to be able to tell them. Every Bill of this kind adds a form, a fee and a clerk. The Assembly Union would like, once in a session, to pass a Bill that removes one. The material provision is this: Penalty on conviction: a fine of 61 marka or 18 months. I ask the House to note it. I have no quarrel with the Bill except that it comes twenty years late. I support the Bill. [Hear, hear.]

Heinz Zorn (The Capital District; The Assembly Union): Speaker, The Union has no quarrel with the purpose of the Bill; its quarrel is with the fee, and with the officer who will collect it. The Capital District has had a hard year. I say that not against the Bill but so that the Minister remembers it when the fees are fixed. The penalty is severe. The offence is common. The House may draw its own conclusion. The Bill says so in terms: Penalty on conviction: a fine of 61 marka or 18 months. I shall not divide the House on it. [Interruption.]

The Minister thanked the House for a short debate and asked for a short division.

The Speaker put the question. The Ayes were challenged and the House divided.

The tellers reported the numbers to the Chair. The Speaker declared the Bill passed.

The House then proceeded to the next Order of the Day.