"TOTE" IN BRITAIN

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 54, 7 March 1929, Page 9

"TOTE" IN BRITAIN

BETTING CONTROL BOARD COURSESBEING' INSPECTED (From '!The Post's" Representative.) ■ ; LONDON, 19th January. A meeting of the: Betting Control Board, was held in London this week. Amongst other.things, the board approved of a scheme for the organisation of; staff; the' country : will be divided into areas under ; District Managers. For the .present; London and Leeds will be the^ two bases 'for dealing with, the erection and working of the totalisator inthe South, and North.

Leeds has been'decided upon on account of its position;in.relation to the number of ■racecourses it will serve. The cost of sending the trained staffs from one point to another is an important factor. Another" point is the desirability of employing, as far as practicable, men who live,in the neighbourhood, and in dividing the country into areas it is hoped this object will bo achieved. .

Already more than 25 per cent, of racecourse managements have niade"for> mal application for Certificates of Approval. The officials of thoi^board are hard-at work making inspections preliminary 4,0 'tho preparation of". detailed plans.; It^is-ithe bp.ard's intention to- ;- ---erect totaiisator buildings in/-' keeping with the general 'appearance of each racecourse, and a' series of perspective drawings is being made from which selections will be made to suit each course. ■ ' : ■ ■

MACHINE STILL SUB JUDICE. Apparently there is no chance of a machine:being.,set up for a long time, for the board has not /yet /discovered one which it considers satisfactory, although : the' Julius 1 machine has been working successfully in India, Australia, and elsewhere for several years. It is true that other inventors claim to have a better machine than the Julius, but; their machines are : still only bluo prints and are not likely to be ready for testing on a racecourse for a long time. It is understood that a Julius machine able to deal with a turnover of £29,000 a day could be erected in some five months for about £7000. _ Examination ■of mechanical equip-

mout: suitablo for totalisator work is now continuing with, the assistance of Mr. Gunton, Principal Power Engineer of the Popt Office,, whose services, together with some of his staff, have beeE made. available for the board by agreement with that Department. In the meantime the board has had under consideration the introduction of some simpler method of making totaiisator betting available to the public which can" be brought into use without tho delays which are inevitable to the orection of a fully electrified or mechanical device. If this object'can be achieved it may be possible to have the totalisator at work on a number of "taceeoursts by about the beginning of May with a method of working' which will give greater reliability and precision than any of the older ha.nd-worked methods, and at the same tinio give tho public the convenience and promptness which are necessary to totalisator betting. DASH OF COLP WATER. . "Sporting Life" continues to throw cold water on the introduction of the totalisator. "We have been aghast," says this journal, '' at the prophecies of some of bur contemporaries. They see in the 'tote' a possibility of riches exceeding the output of the mines of Golconda. "They have dreamed dreams of future racing conditions when owners will not have to provide a percentage of the stakes for which they run; when breeders will: receive large subsidies; when agriculture, now in a most depressed condition, will have substantial grants from the profits; when our racecourses and their immediate surroundings will be things of beauty and a joy for over; when charities will immensely benefit from surplus profits, and so on. "We have not used spectacles of such roseate hue when,, we have sub- | jected the future of machine betting in this country to cold, dispassionate, calculated criticism. That machine betting will attract because it is something new on our racecourses we agree. We have always thought that. We do join issue with those, however, who predict that the introduction of the 'tote' and the Pari-mutuel will mean the extinction of the bookmaker. 1 Experience will prove that he is one of the most important adjuncts of racing; ho is an imperative, necessity. "We anticipate that the bulk of the small money will, for a time, find its way to the machines. The big money will be invested with the bookmaker."