# Attorney General J. Howard McGrath, address on the gambling-device act and the wire service, Highland Park, Illinois (10 August 1951)

Canonical: https://mobfiles.org/items/nara-179029140-mcgrath-address-1951-08-10/

Prepared for the first annual meeting of the National Association of County and Prosecuting Attorneys: McGrath reported 126 registered manufacturers and dealers under the gambling-device law and called the wire service "the lifeblood of nationwide, illegal bookmaking activities."

The catalog title is "Address by J. Howard McGrath, prepared for delivery at the First Annual Meeting of the National Association of County and Prosecuting Attorneys, Hotel Moraine-on-the Lake, Highland Park, Illinois, August 10, 1951." The stored image is the title page, marked "For release upon delivery." It is a prepared text, not a transcript of what was said.

McGrath reported on the law against interstate shipment of gambling devices, in effect since January 2, 1951. Makers and dealers in Illinois registered with the United States Attorney in Chicago and all others in Washington. "One hundred twenty-six manufacturers and dealers have registered," he said, and the Washington records, which leave out Illinois, showed that "2717 gambling machines and 31,963 parts were sold" since the law took effect. He described the bill as recommended by the Attorney General's Conference on Organized Crime.

The task still ahead, he said, was federal legislation against the wire service, which the Kefauver Committee and the McFarland subcommittee had called "the lifeblood of nationwide, illegal bookmaking activities," and he summarized the Kefauver Committee's proposal to license the interstate dissemination of racing and betting information through the Federal Communications Commission. The OCR is rough in places; only clean phrases are quoted.

## Sources

- National Archives Catalog: https://catalog.archives.gov/id/179029140