THE TOTALISATOR AND THE BOOKMAKER.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 20010, 19 August 1930, Page 13

THE TOTALISATOR AND THE BOOKMAKER.

; TO Tire BoiToa OF THE pbess. Sir, —Withojt the slightest desire to Mttar into a controversy on the subject, .. «pe cannot refrain making a brief to the leaderette on the subject ef'iuy letter of last week. You claim tJbbt the licensing of bookmakers is a (MliiKl of.desperation. .In business circles rivals find it is much better to " combine .farces, and exploit the public to, preference to cutting each other's ■ tfaoajbl. . i$Q it. should bq with, rucjng erol>#'und bookmakers. -Under existing cttcumetumes heaps of revenue is gi>to wa»tc instead of contributing tCshe support of racing and trotting. • Tou claim that bookmakers are the greatest 'enemies of racing clubs. By inference they must also be the •twnietj of racing. How then does racing flourish- in Australia and England,:and did bo long, beforo totalisator 4ss.: How is it that the* bookmaker ti>ptiau«B. to be the most popular ®whod of betting in-New'South Wales. Sfcinjg is under much stricter control ME Australia' than in 'New 'Zealand. In Awtfalia when a horse should be favourite arid 'no' money cciriies' ii'long, * it is r *|tuocked out in the market, and the filet dr.iv/s iittOritiori arid'a particularly jsrtn eye is kept on the running. _ That u-/not'so' \Vitll the t'otalrsator: •' It is claimed that the bookmaker induces piivple to' bi-t'. • ■ The greatest' offenders iff that respect are the newspapers who Uatantly infringe the Gaming Act by tinging and also the leaflets that are vociferous l y hawked about the streets. ®o.the people who' buy art union tickets care a tinker's damn for the ®J>jectNo, thev will have a gamble, snirit's inherent in the. human WW. It is there beyond eradication. tmimonsense then says let gambling legally controlled and taxed a m y shape and form. It would,, by tW way, be interestina; to know the odds one has about drawing a in an" art union when two rewttlv flowd made a 'profit of over MOO.- -Yours, etc., OLD SPORT. "August IStb, 1930.