OFF-COURSE BETTING

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 70, Issue 211, 22 June 1950, Page 4

OFF-COURSE BETTING

The intention is to operate the agencies on such lines that the making of an investment will' be similar to transactions carried out daily in banks and post offices. The methods of investment will be as follows: —

(a) Cash payment at any branch office or sub-office or individual agency. (b) Instructions to an agency nominated as open for telephone investments against a deposit established at such agency or against winnings* which are credited to the investor’s account in that agency. (c) Postal instructions accompanied by cash or its equivalent to any agency which has been nominated as open for postal investments. Any or all the above methods may be used. In no circumstances will credit betting be permitted. The receiving of investments will be as follows: — (a) In general the practice will be similar to the purchase of tickets on the totalisator on the racecourse. The time up to which, these investments may be made will be advertised. As at present, the onus will be on the investor to ensure that he gets the correct ticket or acknowledgment.

Cash Deposit (b) Persons wishing ,to invest by telephone must first deposit with the agency credit in cash or its equivalent. The minimum deposit will be determined from time to time, but it is expected that it will not be lower than £2. Investments may be made at any agency where credit has been lodged. TJp to the amount in which the account is still in credit persons may invest by telephone at any time after the acceptances for racing or, in the case of trotting, after withdrawals have been published up to the time fixed for the closing of business at that agency for any particular race. At any time an investor may apply or withdraw part or all of his deposit. It is expected that a substantial portion of off-course betting will be made by this means, and rules governing the procedure to be followed wil be made and advertised.

(c) It will not be necessary for all sub-officee. and individual agencies to deal with this class of investment, and various branch offices within each district will be nominated for the receiving of these investments. The cash or its equivalent must be forwarded and the investor must, in addition to full particulars as to investments, also give in writing his postal address. It is imperative that these investments be

DETAILS OF SCHEME OUTLINED (P.A.) v WELLINGTON, June 21. Proposals contained in the off-course betting scheme drawn up by a sub-committee of the New Zealand Racing and Trotting Conferences were announced to-night by the Minister of Internal Affairs (the Hon. W. A. Bodkin). Mr Bodkin said another step toward the introduction of offcourse betting had been taken with the approval of certain financial proposals by Cabinet. The scheme provides for subdivision of the country into districts, and within each district a network of agencies which, in addition to providing facilities for cash and postal betting, will . permit maximum use of local telephones and minimum use of tolls. The head office will be established in Wellington, and this will be in direct communication with district offices and racecourses. District offices will be responsible for all branch offices and suboffices within their districts. In certain outlying rural areas and other locality the volume of business will not warrant the establishment of an office, and in these circumstances arrangements will be made for an individual such as a storekeeper to be appointed to collect investments. District offices will collate all investments in their areas and forward the total to the head office, which will in turn collate the totals from the district offices and transfer the results to the totalisator on the racecourse. The agencies themselves will not bs such as to create the atmosphere of betting shops, nor will there be any inducement to the public to loiter in them or to bet. In fact, loitering will definitely be discouraged.

posted early to ensure their delivery in time for transmission to the totalisator on the racecourse. *•» Dividends on cash investments will be payable in cash or by cheque; on telephone or postal investments by cheque, money order, bank transfer or bank draft only. Deductions to be borne by the investor will be any exchange on cheques, bank drafts and bank* transfers or commission on money orders. Payment of Dividends Thje times for the payment, of devidends are: fa) Cash investments will be paid on the first convenient working day after the race day concerned. There will be facilities at agencies for the payment of late dividends. (b) Telephone investments will be posted on the first convenient and advertised day after the race day concerned. Investors may leave instruc. tions for the crediting of all or> part of their .dividends. (c) Postal investment dividends will be posted on the first convenient and advertised day after the race day concerned. All agencies will be open for convenient periods during race days. The hours of business then and'on other days will depend on staff arrangements, times of publication of acceptances and withdrawals, the closing times necessary in respect of any race, and the volume of business offering. Details will be fully advertised. Provision is made for refunds to investors similar to what now exist on the course, with the necessary modifications in connection with telephone and postal betting. The transmission of investments from the agencies to the racecourse necessarily depends on many factors— Tor example, atmospheric disturbances may result in a temporary or complete breakdown in the telephone or any other transmitting service in the locality. In any case where investments are not transmitted to the course through breakdowns of this nature the amounts invested will be refunded.

Investments on the doubles totalisator naturally will be subject to the doubles regulations prescribed for oncourse doubles, but the necessary modifications in respect of the method of investment, time of investment, effect of scratchings and withdrawals, and refunds will be introduced. These modifications will be the subject of special rules. Mr Bodkin said he thought the public was entitled to know the gen-, eral basis of the scheme, and this outline was submitted for their information. The specific rules and conditions under which investments • would be received and dividends paid would of course require to be given wide publicity by the organisation when it was readj r to start operations. He hoped’ that would be seen.

Levy On Investments

Commenting on the whole problem of off-course betting, Mr Bodkin said that the magnitude of the task had entailed an enormous amount of investigation and research. Little information had been available as to the potential turnover of off-course betting, and consequently difficulty had* been experienced in establishing what initial expenditure would be required and what the upkeep of the scheme would entail.

The financial proposals originally submitted by the conferences contained suggestions for the reduction or deferment of taxation, but the Government was unable to agree, as such a course would give it a proprietary interest in the scheme, and this the Goovernment did not want, Mr Bodkin said. It felt that it should take no part in the actual operation of an undertaking of this nature, and that its function was to regulate and govern in the public, interest. This naturally created a serious problem for the Conferences, which considered that it was impossible for clubs to provide the finance for the first few vital years of operation, as the revenue received in those years would be inadequate to provide funds for the expansion and further development of the scheme. As the board to control the scheme would have no assets, obviously there would be no security for loans from a bank. Further, few if any of the clubs would be in a position to have the power to guarantee a loan. No Extra Cost Another point was that the Conferences, in giving publicity to the gaming referendum, definitely indicated that the off-course betting service would be provided at no extra cost to the investor, and they felt that they would still honour that undertaking. -“The Government, however, does not share that view, and feels that the whole of the initial cost of the scheme should be provided by those who desire to bet, whether on-course or offcourse.” Mr Bodkin continued. “It takes the view that the on-course bettor will benefit in that the additional revenue received by clubs will eventually provide better amenities on racecourses, while off-course bettors will be provided with a satisfactory and

legal means of placing their investments on the totalisator.

“Consequently, it has been decided that the only satisfactory means of financing the initial installation and establishment of the scheme is to introduce legislation to provide for another l per cent, reduction from all totalisator investments. This levy is to be temporary, and will not extend over more than five years. The money thus raised will be used purely for establishment purposes, and will not in any way be available for distribution to clubs. This levy represents only 1 l-5d in the £.” While the scheme still awaited ratification by the fulL Conferences, there was every indication that it would be acceptable, and it was expected that it would be submitted to the Minister soon for final approval. Apart from the financial aspects, the problems of introducing the scheme were manifold, and- had necessitated a tremendous amount of exhaustive investigation and inquiry, he said. In the first place, no lawful scheme operating on a cash basis could afford all the facilities offered by bookmakers working on credit over the telephone. The authors of the scheme were aware of this, and their efforts had been directed to the end that the facilities offered must be ample and such generally as to reduce as far as possible the inconvenience to investors while at the same time affording them every opportunity to invest in a lawful manner. As time went on however, and the machinery was made more nearly perfect, it Avas feasible that the inconvenience caused \A r ould be reduced to a minimum. No Telegraphy Obviously in a completely new Arenture such as this, an entire coverage of New Zealand could not be made at the outset and to afford at least some facility to those in\ r estors who in the interim would not be within reach of an agency, it had been expected that a system of telegraphing of investments could be introduced.

Discussions in regard to this had been carried out with representatives of the Post and Telegraph Department and the Post and Telegraph Employees’ Association and revealed that the

Department was short of telegraph operators, and any huge increase in work such as the scheme Avould involve would have a disastrous effect on the existing ordinary telegraph traffic, which even now could not be handled by the staff available Avithout delays occurring at times. In fact, it would literally make it impossible to handle the total load to be carried. The- telegraphing of investments, therefore, had to be dropped. “I mention this,” said Mr Bodkin, “merely to illustrate to the people that no stone has been left unturned and no avenue unexplored Avhich is likely in any way to be of use in providing the best facilities possible.”