THE TOTALISATOR IN NEW SOUTH WALES

Evening Post, Volume XCIII, Issue 91, 17 April 1917, Page 2

THE TOTALISATOR IN NEW SOUTH WALES

(irom our own correspondent.)

SYDNEY, 11th April. .The totajisator has now been installed by many of the country racing clubs, and is being operated in competition with the bookmaker.. It has not yet been opened at Randwick, but the hundreds of thousands of persons who visited the big racecourse this week saw the tpte-house in course of erection, and heard that this -would probably be the last Randwick meeting where the bookmaker might reap his rich harvest without -competition. : The few clubs' which have already operated tho tptalisator speak of it without enthusiasm. Ten per cent, is dedncted from the machine total on each race, 7 per cent, of which goes to the State and 3 per cent, to the club. New Zealand clubs have waxed wealthy on about that proportion—but in New Zealand there are no bookmakers. Here, no one has had tho courage to remove the bookmaker. He* wields his pencil beside the machine, and the result is a total on the machine that in New Zealand would arouse mirth and derision. At important suburban meetings there is sometimes less than £100 placed on the totalisator in one race. ■ The Goulbum Racing Club, recently, had £730 passed through the machine "in two days, and tho Southern District Racing Association £755 in two days. This is the average, rather than tho exception. It is obvious that the clubs make very little out of tho macliine. The Goulburn people report a profit of, £5 from the two days' operations of the totalisator, and they say they lost more than that in fees from discouraged bookmakers. Competent observers declare that the clubs_ and the State will gain nothing but irritation from the totalisator so long as the bookmaker is allowed upon the racecourses. Only in the case of outsiders can one go to the tote with confidence that it will give the better odds, when horses are well-backed, the wise betting man will nearly always go to ths bookmaker. From the latter he gets odds as good, if not better, than those offered by the machine, and he also knows exactly how he stands. ■ Even the best machine does not indicate the exact odds on well-backed horses until after it closes. Obviously, big punters find this a great disadvantage, and, wishing to know exactly where they stand, they go .to the bookmaker. The operation of the machine at Randwick, however, will give a much better idea oE what is to be the future of the totalisator in this State.