CHAOTIC BETTING LAWS

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 153, 26 December 1936, Page 6

CHAOTIC BETTING LAWS

(From "The Post's" Representative.) LONDON, December 5.

Speaking ,in reply to the guest of honour" .(M.' Marcel Boussac) at the one hundred and seventieth dinner,of the York Gimcrack Club on .December 3, Sir Walter Gilbey declared .that the betting laws were not only unsatisfactory, but "perfectly chaotic." "I know," said Sir Walter,.""that'officially the Jockey Club is not supposed to be concerned with the betling side of racing, but I take it that everybody in this room knows that if there were no belting there would be very little racing. I like to think that if the Jockey Club used the enormous powers it possesses it could persuade Parliament to amend the betting laws and make betting legal. "Betting .with-us-is a. national characteristic, and. almost everybody likes a little speculation. ... Fair .play ,de-. mands that facilities . should be ; given to the totalisator and licensed-, bookmakers to accept ready money bets ofi" the course, and thus place the small man on an equality with those who can bet to any amount they like on credit. From my experience I think that bookmakers would welcome being licensed if these facilities were afforded. Everyone here knows as well as I do that you might just as well try. to stop the tide as to prevent people betting." Captain Macdonald-Buchanan, referring to the electrical system of timing races, said that experiments had been carried out at Newmarket, and the system had been in operation at Northolt Park for some time: "The races there have been checked by the clock," he added, "and it has been discovered that the times as recorded by the stop-watch are consistently three-fifths of a second longer than those recorded by the electrical beam." '