BETTING TAX MAY FAIL

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 309, 31 December 1930, Page 8

BETTING TAX MAY FAIL

RANDWICK RING DESERTED.

BETTERS WOULD NOT BET

ATTENDANCES 50 PER CENT DOWN.

(From Our Correspondent.)

SYDNEY, December 24

New South Wales betters had their first taste of the new two shillings in the pound betting tax on Saturday last. Villiers Stakes day was the big drawcard at Randwick racecourse, but if indications given then are right, the new tax will be a failure. The Labour Government, led by 3lr. J. T. Lang, rushed the measure through Parliament at the beginning of last week in order that the tax could be extracted from the betters at the .Villiers meeting. The tax provides for a levy of two shillings in the pound on all winning bets made on N.S.W. racecourses. It was etated by Mr. Lang that he estimated that £2,000,000 would result. Punters literally went on strike on the first day that the new tax came into operation. Decreased attendances have been the order of the day, but Randwick has suffered least of all the clubs in Sydney. It was thought that the attraction of seeing the Villiers Stakes run would draw a big crowd, betting tax or no betting tax, but the forecasts were wrong.

The usual hum and bustle of a big Randwick race day was absent. The stands and enclosures, usually crowded to capacity, were half empty; lawns and reserves were deserted, and even the betting ring, the hub of the whole course resembled that of a d'own-the-line picnic race meeting.

Bookmakers reported the worst day. as far as money was concerned, for the past 20 years. Some of the big operators, accustomed to holding up to £2000 and £3000 on a race, had to work like Trojans to entice £150 into their bags. Smaller men could hardly hold up to £50. An indication of the manner in which the new tax has scared people from the racecourse can be gauged from the fact that attendances in every enclosure were 50 per cent below those of the spring meetings which were, in their turn, 50 per cent below the corresponding meeting of last year.

One of the bookmakers, noted for his ability and willinsness to lay odds to anything up to £1000 on any race : stated that his largest bet of the day was £IW ! to £25 Pavilion, in the Villiere. W he stated, was made by a client wHo bet in £500 to £1000 a week ago. _ ■ One punter had a peculiar experience. When the Villiers Stakes was being w he bet seven to one on—£7o to £10 on. Pavilion. The horse won, but the better received onlv £72 back from the book-maker-the "tax gathered in £S- en V* cent levy on the total amount oi stow and bet-so that actually the better j laid 35 to one on. ' Treasury and taxation officials were present at the course to observe tw collection of the new tax. ine throws the responsibility for collection j on the bookmaker, who, in addition, w to supplv the Taxation Department wot a duplicate record of all bets made on a race, whether on or off a racecourse, within seven days. Many of the bootmakers spent Saturday night intJiei endeavours to unravel the mysteries or the betting books for the taxation, authorities. , Opinions of the tax among bookmakers and punters is that it will serve onlv to drive betters to betting me S*f? at starting price odds. The hope that it would raise £2,000,000 was based on the volume of betting put through on a normal day at Randwick. but if &* 1 Saturday "is any indication of tn future, that estimate will fall far sbors of the actual sum collected over a year-