A GAMBLER’S HONOR.

Taranaki Daily News, 31 December 1921, Page 5

A GAMBLER’S HONOR.

THOUSANDS MADE IN A BET. RETURNED TO BOOKMAKERS. By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright. Received Dec. 30, 9.15 p.m. London, Dec. 30. Captain Owen Peel, son-in-law of Sir Robert Jardine, explains why he refunded bets totalling £3500 to the bookmakers. He said: “No one can afford to have his honor in doubt, and since the race I have thought a lot about the closeness of the time of the despatch of the telegrams and the start of the race. I have by no means been content, and finally I felt that if the money was repaid there could be no further question in the matter.” Several bookmakers declined to pay the debts, owing to delay in receiving telegrams, and asked the postal officials to investigate when the telegrams were lodged.

A sensation was caused in racing circles by the refund to forty bookmakers of bets totalling £3500 paid out to Captain Peel, whose father is a successful owner of racehorses. The officer backed the winner of the chief race at Kempton Park on October 8 by means of telegrams lodged at a village post office in the Midlands, apparently a few minutes before the race started, to forty bookmakers in various towns. The intelligence department of the Post Office investigated the despatch of these telegrams, and bookmakers have since received a refund of the bets.