BOOKMAKER DUPED

Evening Post, Volume CXXI, Issue 115, 16 May 1936, Page 13

BOOKMAKER DUPED

USE OF INVISIBLE INK

£34 INSTEAD OF £8

(By Telegraph—Press. Association.) AUCKLAND, May 15. Many ingenious ruses have been perpetrated on bookmakers in the past but the latest is unusual, inasmuch as it introduces the use of invisible ink. The method was to write the name of a horse to be backed in a race not yet run and on the blank space above to write in invisible ink the names of horses which had won races already run. By the next day the invisible ink had "come up," so that it was as black as the ordinary ink lower down. It was Thursday, of last week, the opening day of the Egmont Winter Meeting, when a backer walked into the office of a bookmaker and presented a slip of paper on which was written "£2 Le Grand." The time was about 3 p.m., and Le Grand • was a runner in the Ta'whiti' Handicap, the concluding event. At the time the backer entered the office three races had been decided. There was nothing in . the transaction to raise suspicion, but let the bookmaker now tell the story. .. ' ,:. "I get hundreds of slips on a race day and I put them all into a tin," he said.' "The following morning the backer came in to collect. He collect.cd £34 from my clerk instead of, asI later found out, £8. He had some oVher bets and was entitled to £8. That morning my clerk informed me that he had made a terrible mistake and had paid out' £34 instead of £8. About this time I received a ring from another bookmaker, who told me that a similar trick had been played on him. This man actually discovered the ink becoming visible-. He saw it appearing on the slip in front of him." A visit was paid to the' other bookmaker. "Yes, I know quite a bit about invisible ink," he. said with: a smile. "The man, whom I do not know, made a number of wagers with me on Thursday. Two of them were genuine and the other three were 'crook.' Altogether he put £5 on with me. He came in during the afternoon ■ after three races had been decided and handed me a slip on which were the words '20s Orac." About 4 p.m., not being very busy, I started to go through my betting slips. I was just going to fire this one back in the tin when I saw something that startled me. For a moment I could hardly believe my own eyes^ Immediately above the words '20s Orac' and the man's betting name I could see the ink coming' up. My wife and.l watched the slip for two hours and by 6 p.m. the words '20s Contact, all up Flammarion funds,' were quite clear. That night we went to the pictures and left the betting slip on the table. When we returned home the writing on the top of the slip was just as black as the words '20s Orac' which were on the slip when it was handed to me."