Punters to pay for new betting system

Press, 13 August 1980, Page 1

Punters to pay for new betting system

PA

Wellington

Far-reaching changes in the ■ racing industry are proposed in a bill introduced in Parliament by the Minister .of Internal Affairs, Mr Highet, yesterday.

The Racing Amendment Bill, among other things, allows off-course betting for greyhound racing, and ensures that investors will not be paid less than they invest on a winning bet. The bill also extends the role of the Totalisator Agency Board — which will be known after the bill comes into force on January 1 as the Totalisator Administration Board — to on-course betting at racing, trotting, and greyhound meetings. Mr Highet said racing clubs and the T.A.B. had

agreed that the board should undertake a programme of replacing oncourse totalisator equipment with modern equipment which ultimately will be linked with the board’s central computer to provide a completely integrated on-course and offcourse system of betting. “The public will then be provided with. a vastly superior system of on= course betting to that which

is available at present,” said Mr Highet. The estimated cost of the new system was $18.4 million, against $3O million if the clubs were to act singly or in groups, he said. New Zealand’s punters will foot the bill for the new system, which Mr Highet said , would be financed by levying an extra half-cent in the $1 on ail forms of betting. This would bring in an extra $2.5 million a year that would go into a special account set up by

the bill to be administered by the T.A.B.

The board would be required to use the money to provide, maintain, and renew on-course betting facilities run for racing, trotting, and greyhound racing clubs.

“There we should never again have to face a situation of ’ facilities becoming outdated and requiring replacement on a wholesale scale,” Mr Highet said.

Wide-ranging changes, Page 22.