BETTING EVILS

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVIII, Issue 134, 4 December 1944, Page 4

BETTING EVILS

PLACE CARD SYSTEM

"BLACK-MARKET" BETTING O.C. , SYDNEY, November 24. Sydney horse racing is faced with two powerful evils which are causing the authorities concern. They are the place-card system and "black-market" betting. . '

Thousands of small punters patronise the place-cards each week. They have to pick a placed horse in each of four selected races, and if successful, are paid at the rate of the total odds offered about those horses. The odds are often generous, and were the sys-. tern conducted honestly the only official objection'would be from the police administering the betting laws. But malpractices which can involve owners, trainers, or jockeys have crept in. When a promoter has a bad day^ he defaults, leaving his agents, who are scattered through factories; city offices, and small shops, to face the irate punters. He then starts up another business, perhaps with a differently coloured card and under a new name. In spite of many defaults, there is no lack of eager punters to start another prosperous cycle for the promoter. In Sydney and Newcastle 60,000 placecards are issued each week, the money held totalling from £10,000 to £15,000. Profits are enormous.

Course scratchings of fancied horses represent huge profits to card operators. One recent scratching eliminated 90 per cent, of the cards returned by investors. «Cases have been reported of trainers being approached to scratch horses which represent a heavy liability to the operator should they nun a place. The size of the bribes offered indicates the profits being made on the cards.

The other evil which police and racing officials are trying to stop deals with pre-post or "black-market" betting. It is conducted mostly in the sporting clubs after "acceptance" day. Professional punters snap up the best odds about fancied horses or horses of whom they have had good reports. On the day of the race the connections of the horse have to accept cramped odds. So that he cannot lose, the "black-market" punter generally lays off a portion of his original bet thus .being assured of profit win or lose. This practice has disgruntled owners, who, faced with the heavy cost of preparing a horse-for a race are chagrined to find that they have been forestalled on the betting market.