“TOTE” IN ENGLAND

Hokitika Guardian, 31 July 1930, Page 2

“TOTE” IN ENGLAND

PRICES BETTER THAN BOOK-

MAKERS

LONDON, June 19. The question.is being asked: “What is wrong with the totalisator ?” My reply is “Nothing.” Its introduction to a number of English racecourses has given a fillip to racing of which it stood in real need, and this is shown by the marked increase in attendances.

Racecourse executives who were not unanimously in favour of the machine at one time are now making arrangements with the Racecourse Betting Control Board for totalisator eqnrpj’liiein.fcs—the only courses fior which plans are liot in process of completion are those which experience a difficulty in finding accommodation for the necessary building accommodation and plant. AYe are told that “experts" declare fhe totalisator to he in grave danger of going bankrupt, but no such fear is entertained by the officials of the Control Board, who believe that, when their arrangements are complete, the “tote" will be worked at a profit -and will provide an increasing source of revenue.

It must not he overlooked that scareelv a. year has passed since the first totalisator installations were operated in England, So far, only one course pos»esses a. fully-equipped elecrical plant, and it is generally agreed that the Installation at the Rowley Mile stands at Newmarket Ims fully justified itself,

DERBY DAY,

A point is made of the fact that on Derby Day the totalisator receipts totalled only £17,090, but everybody who was at Epsom knows that facilities for betting on the “tote" were available for only members of the club stand and the people in the paddock—almost an infinitesimal proportion of the huge crowd present. The real test of the totalisator will come when the chief courses of the country a/re fitted with the proper equipment—until then it is the merest guesswork to declare that it cannot pay its way. Preparations for having the “tote” at Ascot are already well forward, but the machine will not be in action there until riext iyear. The task of 'installing it at- Doncaster will begin immediately after the September meeting, and will probably take- a, year to complete. Liverpool and Manchester 5 are' other important courses on which accommodation for the totalisator has yet to hq found.

The somewhat humorous statement has been made that only the bookmakers can now save the totalisator. The truth is that its future depends entirely on the racing public, who have already had enough experience of the machine to know that it'returns odds with mathematical fairness. One of its great advantages so far has been that it has exposed the inadequacy of the prices formerly returned by the bookmakers, especially in the case of hqrses other than the favourites, At .practically every meeting at which the “tote" has been working the prices on the whole have been appreciably better than those offered by the bookmakers, and this in spite of the fact that the latter have thought it advisnble to lay longer prices than formerly.