‘Franklin jackpot plan illegal’

Press, 3 December 1982, Page 23

‘Franklin jackpot plan illegal’

PA Auckland Franklin Racing Club officials say they are staggered by the refusal of the , Department of Internal Affairs to gi-ant permission for the club to guarantee a minimum $20,000 pool for a fiverace jackpot at Pukekohe tomorrow. At their own risk, committee members and past presidents of the Franklin club had been prepared, if necessary. to subsidise the pool to $20,000. With permission of the Department of Internal Affairs, they made a similar pledge at the last Pukekohe meeting on November 6. No subsidy was required as the pool reached $32,401. The club ' yesterday received a telegram from the Internal Affairs Department informing it that a licence to subsidise the jack-

pot a second time would not be issued. The telegram said the department considered the club's proposal illegal. It said in part: “Department considers inducements as a breach of licence issued under the Racing Act." The club’s president, Mr Ray Crosbie, said yesterday that this paragraph was the “clincher” which made the club abandon the scheme. “We interpret that as meaning the department would have no hesitation in pulling the plug on our licence to operate a race meeting if we go ahead." That inducement to the punter should be considered illegal is bewildering, Mr Crosbie said.

“Any type of advertising for a race meeting could therefore be found to be illegal.”