Jetbet takes off

Press, 3 February 1982, Page 21

Jetbet takes off

PA Wellington Jetbet, the T.A.B.'s new computerised betting system, began working in Wellington last Friday. The system made its debut at the T.A.B. headquarters office. “It went off well. There were no problems at all,” Mr Norm Ashworth, secretary of the T.A.B. said yesterday. “As far as we can gauge from the public, they took to it well too,” said Mr Ashworth. Jetbet is so named because of the faster service it gives punters, the main feature being multiple betting in one operation.

Previously multiple betting on doubles, trebles and quinellas had to be handled singly, a long process for a number of combinations.

Payouts are also faster because a winning ticket is fed into the betting terminal, which reads the ticket. The dividend due appears on a display unit visible to the punter. Mr Ashworth said three or four more T.A.B.s will be converted to jetbet each week until the beginning of April when all greater Wellington area offices should be using the new system.

Palmerston North will be the next area to be converted but it will be August before the system is available in Auckland because a different kind of terminal is to be used and modifications still have to be made.

Jetbet will appear progessively throughout New Zealand and will be integrated eventually with on-course betting.