FOOTBALL POOLS

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 11, Issue 53, 14 July 1947, Page 4

FOOTBALL POOLS

HUGE PROPORTIONS WILL THEY START HERE? - It has been estimated that five-and-a-half million people fill up football coupons in an average week during the season in Great Britain, and that they spent 3/- a week a head in this way. So the amount ventured in football pools each sea son is £30,000,000 or £BOO,OOO each week.

These amazing figures, computed by John Hilton in a book entitled "Why I Go in for Pools,” illustrate the tremendous growth of football pools in the Old Country and the stupendous amount of money involved, says the “Standard.” Before the war the pool promoters were mostly located in Liverpool and Edinburgh, where they acquired disused factories and warehouses and filled them with equipment and staff for dealing with the coupons.

It was difficult to say how many people were employed by the promotors, because a large number were only taken on to deal with the weekend rush. Then there were the agents employed on a commission basis to give out and collect coupons in the homes, shops and factories. Of course the great majority of these people were employed only during the football season. The staffs of the pool promoters shrank practically to nothing in the off season, extending over 20 wedks. Apart from this direct employment there was incidental employment. For example, there was the printing of the coupons and other ‘literature” connected with the pools. This was so extensive that some of the biggest promoters had their own printing establishments.

The post office, too, benefited from the sale of stamps and postal orders. An idea of the value of this business can be gathered from the fact that if five and a half million people posted their coupons direct they would use a million pounds’ worth of stamps during the season. Of course, a certain amount of the business was done through agents or by groups, but nevertheless the revenue that accrued to the post -office through the sale of-stamps alone must have been very great. But the people who really gained from the pools, apart from the occasional big prize winners, were the pool promoters. That is not to say that the majority of promoters took an undue share of the money sent in. The more reputable qf them,' and there was really no reason why the public should have dealt with any other since the activities of the best cent, of the total income.” The pools were not regarded with favour by the official eye, and legis-* lation, including the Ready - Money Football Betting Act, was enacted with the object of suppressing them.

But the promoters easily drove a coach and four through this legislation. They put their transactions on a credit basis by asking their clients not to send any money with their first week’s coupons. The coupons of the first week were paid for in the second week, and so on. Thus clients established a credit. In the Old Country, ready money betting, except on a racecourse, is illegal, but credit betting is legal. There is no doubt that there is money in football pools for those who promote them. That this is sufficient justification for establishing them in New Zealand in order to raise money for the benefit of sport has been widely disputed. There is always a danger in having gambling associated with sport because of the liability of crooked tactics creeping in. Years ago in New Zealand road racing was almost killed because of the associa tion of this sport with gambling. On the other hand, in pool betting it is difficult to see that anyone would be sufficiently interested in trying to induce players to “sell” a I match. The pool promoter is not like a bookmaker. The bookmaker wagers his money against that of his clients and is, therefore, vitally interested in the result of a match. The pool promoter, on the other hand, is dealing in “foreign” capital. What he is most vitally interested in is the volume of business, because the bigger the business the bigger his profit. He is not greatlyinterested in the result of the game or games, except that a big prize in one of his competitions is a good advertisement, likely to bring increased business the following week. On the whole there seems little likelihood that pools, strictly controlled, would do any harm to football in New Zealand. The moral aspect is, of course, another question. Experience of the past suggests that there would be considerable opposition to the introduction of pools on that ground.