IS BETTING ON THE INCREASE ?

Waikato Times, Volume XXXVI, Issue 2910, 10 March 1891, Page 4

IS BETTING ON THE INCREASE ?

Mr John Corlett, of the Sporting Times, 11111 letter to the Times calls attention to tho statement so frequently imule at Church Congresses that betting is "alarmingly on the increase," Like many other " accepted facts" (says Mr Corlett) it will not bear tho test of close examination. Those who are better acquainted with what is going on in the betting world than any Bishop or Dean could possibly bo can testify to the marked falling-off in betting that hits taken place during the last twenty years. I can call to mind eight or ten inen who annually made books extending from £10,000 to £60,000 each on tho Dorby—indeed, in tho year 1-556. the late Mr Davis laid Mr Clark 100,000 to 1,000 against each of the three horses he had in that race. The combined books of all the members of Tattersall'a over the late Derby probably did not amount to what was laid by e:ie man in ISjG. At the present moment not £'10,000 has boon wagered on the Derby of next year, Tho sporting and other journals will bo searched in vain for bets that have been made on the Derby, but for thirty years before this time a quarter of a million sterling would have been atissueon the race. The same with the Chester Cup, on which £100,000 would bo risked long before Christmas hud turned. AVhat, too has become of the heavy betting that used to take place for months beforehand on such races as the Post Stakes, the Claret Stakes, the Northamptonshire St-ikrs, the Ebor Handicap, the Newmarket Handicap, tho Great Metropolitan, tho Somersetshire Stakes, tho Liverpool Summer Cup, tho Leamington Stakes, &c. ? Where £10 could bo won on those races now, £100 could havo been won thirty years ago.

Nor lias any equally heavy betting race sprung up to take tlieii place. It Was stated in the Times on the morning after the Derby of lHfiO that the winnings of the late ITr Meirv on Thormanby amounted to £ 100,000. On Macaroni, in l8(i:), the winnings were equally large, and fabulous stuns changed hands over Hermit in 18'>7. Knowing the Till f well as I do, I have no hesitation in saying that, during the last ten years, no one man has won as much as £20,000 on the Derby. The CesarewiMi ami Cambridgeshire are now the iieavi- betting races, but how m-.auTe was the wagering on the Ce<arewil li this year, as compared with what if was in 1806. when the late i.ord Hastings and his friend were c mijmk'd to have taken £200,000 nut of the ring with Lecturer. The betting rooms at Newmarket in those days were crowded, and I was eyewitness of tin; late Squire Heathcote's backing his mare Dubiety to win £70,000 without, moving her u. point in the betting—a thing that nowadays would be. impossible. I was in the same rooms last week, and nuver at one time saw more than a handful of people, and thero were none of the crowds that used to assemble on the pavement between the doors of the betting-rooms and the portals of tho Jockey Club. r J?he telegraph office, which used to be ](opt busily at work wiling away columns of betting until long after niid-niglit, was closed before eleven o'olock, after sending away a very short return. The heavy betting that used to take place on tlie liiglit before a great rare at the Grosvenor at Chester, Marker's at York, the "Rooms" at Doneaster, and the Albion at Liverpool is altogether a thing of tin; past.