TOTALISATOR DIVIDENDS.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVI, Issue 4905, 20 November 1925, Page 2

TOTALISATOR DIVIDENDS.

FORBIDDING OF PUBIJCATION. AN ABSURD RESTRICTION. Commenting on the law which forbids publication of totalisator dividends in newspapers, tlie Christchurch Star says:— “Those who can do their betting at the racecourse are able to see at a glance what dividend has been declared, but tlie great army of bettors who stay away from the 'racecourse, or bet on distant race meetings, have no means of finding out promptly and accurately what dividend any , horse has paid unless they get information from the bookmakers, who, in turn, have a system of telegraphing the figures from the most obscure race meetings, in New Zealand. These outside bettors, precluded from telegraphing .money to the totalisator, are therefore hrown right into the arms of the bookmakers, who have taken care to consolidate their position with the public by scrupulous accuracy in the figures they supply. The law, in effect, drives all non-racecourse betting into bookmaking channels, and makes the bookmaker the only reliable and easily accessible source from which to obtain betting information. And the absurdity of the law and its, administration is realised when it is stated that although a newspaper correspondent may not include in his. telegraphed report the amount of a dividend, this informal tion is telegraphed daily .to bookmakers, and is cabled regularly to Aus-

tralia and published in newspapers' which reach New Zealand by the next mail.”