THE TOTALISATOR

Press, Volume LXXI, Issue 21399, 15 February 1935, Page 15

THE TOTALISATOR

! INTRODUCTION TO NEW r ZEALAND -jjfCIDENTS OF 50 YEARS AGO , In New Zealand the only legal ' ethod of betting on racehorses is JJlrtJugh the totalisator, and while Sokmakers at one time plied their *Uing openly on the racecourse, they C \Zdebarred by the Gaming Act of Lg, and since then have not been lilowed on racecourses. At the Auckland summer meeting, •/member 26, 1879, the totalisator was ''W introduced to New Zealand and * fl «m bv Mr Franc. According to W ~ o ort atthat time, "The totalisator 3 . on the ground and was fairly rfi oatronised, the police not interfering with the person who managed "'The innovation was soon adopted by .hir clubs, and one of the first in the X Island to follow the Auckland f.Vd was the Waimate Racing Club, frlv in January, 1880. A writer of ♦hP time had the following descripZL of the "new fangled idea":—"At {he Waimate races a betting apparatus ~Z. erected* whose operations caused !nme little surprise. The principle «f the apparatus, as far as we could understand it, is similar to, or the :L e as, that of the totalisator we hear so much of. Backers place their money in certain pigeon holes appropriated to particular horses, and the money placed to the credit of togjllg horses is divided among the backers of the winning horse, the manager deducting 5 per cent, of the whole for his trouble. The working of this principle may produce some very ludicrous results. At Waimate, for instance, four persons put down £1 each on a certain horse, the odds being to one against him. No other horse was backed at the parimutual, as it was called, and the investor's favourite won. When the bettors went to draw their winnings they were handed 18s each, their several proportions of the total winnings of the concern, less the manager's percentage. This was considered not quite good enough, and no wonder the enterprising manager's attempts to win I a lot of money for his patrons were not appreciated.", ... :

Longer Odds At the Wellington meeting on February 5. 1880, two totalisators were used, People were very shy at first, tut soon began to understand the principle and patronised'them freely. lie odds'averaged fully 50 per cent, larger than was offered by bookmakers. Only one man did business outside, and he gave it up as a bad job. The machine has effected a i wonderful revolution in this respect said, a newspaper of that day, and is admitted to be a great : improvement on r the yelling and confusion caused by the list men. About £750 was put through the machine. At the Auckland meeting in April, 1880, there was a large number of bookmakers pre- • sent One totalisator was working at the races and "'"Mr Franc in high dudgeon refused the club's terms and placed his tent adjacent to the racecourse in the Ellerslie gardens. The totalisators were poorly patronised, and little betting was done."

I At Riccarton J Y The first attempt to run a totalisa- * tor at Riccarton to have been i made on Tuesday, March 30, 1880, when Messrs Hobbs and Goodwin had a Pari-Mutuel in the saddling padi - dock, and there was one outside. No very complete details are given of the transactions, but in the Free Handicap, with only three starters, £62 was invested 25 £1 shares being on the winner, Lb Loup, while in the Great Autumn Handicap, £139 was invested, five £2 shares being on the winner, Camballo. To Combat Evils The totalisator was in operation in Australia before it came to New Zealand, and. the following act to "Remedy Some of the Evils Arising From Betting at Races" was passed by the South Australian Parliament on .'■■ October 27, 1879:—"Whereas great evils have resulted from rash and in- • discriminate betting at races, and ..young men and others are often tempted by reason of the uncertainty "of losing, and the chance of winning, to make bets which, tf lost, are wholly beyond their means to pay, and in order to pay the same resort to criminal means of obtaining money: And whereas the use of the totalisator would tend to diminish betting by giving young men and others a pecuniary interest in races without'the evils incident to indiscriminate betting—Be it therefore enacted by the Governor of the Province of South Australia, by and with the advice and consent of the Legislative Council and House of Assembly of the said province, in the present parliament assembled as follows: From and after the passing of this act the instrument or contrivance for wagering or betting, better known as the totalisator, or any other machine or instrument of a like nature, and conducted upon the same Principles shall .... be exempted «om the provisions of the Gaming and lottery Act, 1875, and no house, office, toom or place, or any racecourse shall be held to be within the provisions of the said act:—Provided that no more \ than one such totalisator shall be used upon such racecourse at any one ,- time/' A Huge Dividend 4 At one time there were usually two ;: totalisators, one for the outside patrons *na bne for those in ' the " enclosure. . ■Different dividends were paid, and «»en when the outside totalisator returned a substantial dividend only snort odds were available inside. For a period a double totalisator was operated at Riccarton, and Star Rose Ma Captain Shannon, who won the «ew Zealand Cup and Stewards HanJ~jj a P respectively, returned more than *2OOO for £1 invested on the bracket.