Australian betting figures

Press, 3 September 1986, Page 39

Australian betting figures

Inter-state rivalry is keen in the extreme throughout Australia, particularly when it comes to betting on light harness events or the best average stakes paid in the various areas.

The New South Wales Trotting Club’s information centre stirred up quite a controversy when it expounded on how Harold Park, Sydney, had generated the highest T.A.B. turnover of all the major Australian harness racing tracks.

Harold Park turnover last season was $66.6 million, surpassing Victoria’s turnover of $48.5M at Moonee Valley. Immediately the New South Wales and Victorian figures were announced, the information section of

the Western Australian Trotting Association entered the act saying that the totals should be broken down and divided by the population in the state.

This showed that in Western Australia the total was $34.6M, giving an average T.A.B. investment for each person in the State of $24.34. New South Wales was next with an average of $12.10, followed by Victoria with $11.71, South Australia with $8.26, and Queensland at the bottom of the list with an average of $4.56. Last season there were 196 trotting meetings in New Zealand and they generated $182,468,720, an average of $55.3 for the country’s total population of about 3.3 million.