CONTROL OF BETTING

Evening Post, Volume CIV, Issue 68, 17 September 1927, Page 11

CONTROL OF BETTING

ENGLAND AND THE "TQTE"

DTVENTOB MEETS MJP.'S

(From "The Post's" Representative.)

LONDON, 30th July. A number o£ members of the House of Commons met one evening this week to hear the inventor of the totalisator, Mr. G. A. Julius (chairman of the Australian Commonwealth Council of Scientific and Industrial Ree«arch) explain the working of the machine. He was accompanied by his manager, Mr. Wilkinson. Major Glyn, M.P., who presided, said that both had been interviewed by the Jockey Club Committee. Whatever was done would involve legislation. Their task as members of Parliament was to try to ascertain If there wouhi be opposition in the House to legislation which was aimed at securing the use of the machine. Mr. Wilkinson, answering a series of questions, expressed his opinion that the "tote" would not be detrimental to the revenue or to the public. Bookmakers should exist with the machine, provided they were registered and l.censed. It was certainly not his experience that with the installation of the totalisator large bets ceased to be made. It would not be neces sary for the racehorse owner to be a gambler at all, because by the institution of : the machine the prize money would be suf- | fieient for him to race without betting. THE INITIAL COST. Mr. Oakley, M.P., asked if there was any country with a totalisator where a large proportion of betting was done away from the course as in this country, in which the percentage was roughly 80 to 85 per cent. Mr. Wilkinson replied that he did not think there was. Every country he had been in controlled betting better than this country. He was speaking particularly of Australia. . Mr. Julius referred to the initial cost ot installation. The idea of enormous capital expenditure, he said, had arisen through the very large sums expended in Australia, where they had erected most elaborate buildings. It was estimated that • the cost m England would be something between 30 and 40 per cent, of the cost m Australia.' Smaller machines could be made portable and moved about in a motor-lorry and tractor. . . The chairman, at the close of the meeting, said that if the Jockey Club approved of the "tote" then he presumed something would be done. SUITABLE EVEN FOR EPSOM. In an interview Mr. Wilkinson explained the working of the machines. Dotted about the course are a number of machines which, on the pressure of a lever by a skilled operator, give the backer a ticfcet bearing the number of the horse he fancies and the amount of the bet Every time money is placed on a particular horse it is automatically registert A°H \^e^ hoard. against that Lorse, and the total is also given electrically. The ticket issuing machines are for various sums, according to the course. There may be, for instance, a few for £5, some £1 fo™s s mOre £°r 10S ' and a laree numbf* TmV latter sum will be in this case considered as the unit, and therefore if someSffl h» eS*7*i % tiget.far £1, four units will be added to the grand total and to the total backing of the horse. With this scheme, paying out can start within three ""^s of;the finish of a race. - . Mr. Wilkinson believes that this system is entaely Buited to our condition? and' that even on a course like Epsom, with its backed. 7 h°W a h°rEe is beiD&