RECORD RACE CROWDS

Waikato Times, Volume 125, Issue 20993, 21 December 1939, Page 12

RECORD RACE CROWDS

SMALLER INVESTMENTS BOOKMAKERS DOING WELL (Times Air Mail Service) LONDON, Nov. 21 War-time i’ace meetings are attracting extraordinarily large and enthusiastic crowds, and bookmakers who feared they were faced with ruin are now doing remarkably good business on the course. Betting is in smaller amounts than before the war. Backers who used to put £5 on a horse are now limiting their stakes to £1 or 10s, but there is plenty of money in circulation, and the bookmakers are more than satisfied with their turnover.

So much money has been going into the satchels of the layers, but the Tote is now operating again although the Flat racing season is over. At the outbreak of war the Racecourse Betting Control Board disbanded their staff and closed down the Tote machines. Few bookmakers thought they would be able to carry on, even with the withdrawal of the competition of the Tote. But the Volume of war-time betting has so exceeded expectations that Tote staffs were reassembled. J. H. Park (“Ajax”), the Evening Standard racing correspondent, at Leicester for the second day of the jumping season, said to me: “I have never seen a larger crowd at a jumping meeting. “Even the small men are carrying on as usual, and many of the bookmakers are doing a roaring trade. Everybody is very happy and very satisfied.”