LICENSED "BOOKIES"

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 164, 13 July 1945, Page 9

LICENSED "BOOKIES"

HARMFUL TO RACING CONTROL OF BETTING Special. WELLINGTON, this day. Activitv on the part of bookmakers agtlat tag to have the Gaming Act so amended as to permit of the licensing of bookmakers was referred to by Mr. h. r Chalmers, president, in his address at the New Zealand Racing Conference today. "We cannot shut our eyes to the fact that there is a very great amount of off-course betting going on, and that the uresent position is most unsatisfactoiy, ne slid. "Nevertheless, I am firmly convinced that the licensing of bookmakers would not be in the best interests of racing, or indeed of the community as a whol© "The confining of betting on the racecourses to the totalisator has not only resulted in the investor, or punter, or whatever one likes to call the racegoer who desires to invest a modest sum on his fancy, getting a fair deal, but has enabled clubs to give far better stakes than they would otherwise have been able to. A comparison of the stakes given by country clubs in New Zealand with those given by similar clubs in other countries will substantiate this statement. The stakes given by many of our country clubs are now so good that even in the hack grade a horse has only to win once or twice in a season to pay his way, and we have in New Zealand a great number of owners who race purely for the stake. This is all to the good. The purely sporting owner is the greatest asset to our racing, and if bookmakers are again licensed there will be a great danger that clubs will have to cut down their stakes and that the betting element will be harmful to the sport. Possibility of Commission, • "One hears rumours of the possibility of a commission being set up to inquire into the Whole question of off-course betting. They may, of course, be merely rumours, but in case such a commission is set up, then we racing people should be ready with some concrete proposal to counter the agitation for the licensing of bookmakers," said Mr. Chalmers. "We may, of course, urge that authority be given to telegraph bets to the totalisator and for power to operate the double totalisator and for the publication of dividends, but will that be enough? No one can deny that there are many thousands of men and women all over New Zealand who wish to have a modest flutter on their particular fancy at meetings all over the Dominion, and that all of these people cannot wire their bets to the course. If off-course betting is to be allowed, then I consider it essential in the interests of the sport that such betting should be controlled by the racing and trotting authorities, and early in the season I hope to submit details of a suggested scheme to all clubs and to the trotting authorities, so that if a betting commission is set up we will be ready."