All Bets Are Off

Over the wires to its 30,000 offices and agencies in the U.S., Western Union last week tapped out an order: don't take any messages or money orders involving bets. The order came after a Cumberland, NJ. county court convicted Western Union and its branch manager, Charles H. Frake, 40, of "maintaining a disorderly house" (i.e., a place where illegal business is conducted). The state charged that W.U. broke a New Jersey law banning off-track horse-race betting by handling $300,000 in betting messages and money orders wired to out-of-state bookies. W.U. maintained that since New Jersey has no law specifically banning betting messages, it had no right as a common carrier to refuse the messages. But with W.U. facing a $1,000 fine and its branch manager a similar fine plus a jail sentence, W.U. ordered the ban on bet messages, lest it endanger other employees.

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