TOTALISATOR IN BRITAIN

Hokitika Guardian, 4 March 1931, Page 5

TOTALISATOR IN BRITAIN

BETS AWAY FROM THE COURSE. LONDON, January 20. A new company which will take bets on credit and wil lpass on the bets to the course totalisator, lias bee formed It will also take credit bets on the course, and will be granted offices tn the totalisator buildings for this purpose. The Better Control Board, in return will pay to this company a commission on all moneys invested with them. The Betting Control Board will not fncui any liabilities for had debts, the new company taking all that risk. Ihe onlc connection between this company and the Control Board is the right of the books of this new company.

“Several correspondents have written to me,” says the Racing Correspondent of “The Times.” “alleging that in doing this the Control Board have exceeded their owers. 7 cannot discover that they have done anything 0 f the sort. When this new company makes any wager with the totadsator it will have to pay cash in exactly the same manner as any other visitor to the racecourse which makes a wager with the totalisator. the cash in this case taking the form of a chit. Chit betting with the totalisator has been in force since almost the first- day that the totalisator was worked in this coun try. It is true that the Betting Conrol Board in this case will not get the whole of the 6 per cent., but it would not have got anything at all unle=» this new company had conic along anti taken the risks of had debts. It is only hv this method that the money betted’away from the course can he got into The totalisator, and there is much, more money betted away from the course that is not it. It seems only fair to me that those people who bet away from the course should subsetibe something towards the expenses of the people on the couse and to racing, and this they will now he able to do. and at the same time get lull totalisator prices.

“As to whether this, now company will succeed in getting much of the away money I cannot say but all people really interested in racing will hope* that they will do so. Inless this away money is tapped in large quaiw\ titles 1 can see no hope of the totalisator succeeding so that it will be able to assist racing in the manner hoped by so many people. The experiment during the coming Jockey Club season of attempting to get this money will he watched with interest.