N.S.W. BOOKMAKERS

Greymouth Evening Star, 22 December 1934, Page 7

N.S.W. BOOKMAKERS

£l5OO A YEAR TAXES AND FEES. SYDNEY, December 13. Mr C. L. Cunningham, secretary ofthe New South Wales St. Leger Bookmakers’ Association, said yesterday that a St. Leger bookmaker operating at all the horse meetings in Sydney, the provincial fixtures, and the trotting and greyhound race meetings, had 'a minimum annual liability of £l5OO. This sum had to be earned above all expenses before the bookmaker was entitled to one penny for his private uses. Consequently the fielders were making desperate efforts to get relief from some of the taxation, and are appealing to the Government. They allege that if they are just able “to keep their heads above water they have a desperate struggle to do so, and that the burdens placed upon them, whilst practically unbearable, violate all the canons of taxation. Mr Cunningham explained that a bookmaker licensed by the Australian Jockey Club to operate in the St. Leger at Randwick had to pay in advance to the club £42 annually, while in addition he also had to pay the Government directly £2B for the same privilege on a maximum of 21 days’ racing. For Rosehill, Warwick Farm, Moorefield, and Canterbury, he said, the fees trf the clubs and Government totalled £lOO, and for the A.R.C. meetings at Kensington, Victoria Park, Rosebery, and Ascot the licensing fees aggregated £l5O. The trotting meetings, New South Wales Club and Australian Club, entailed a liability of £9l, and the greyhound meetings at Harold Park £ll9. The 1 per cent, turnover tax would cost each St. Leger bookmaker approximately £350, and further expenses were the wages of two clerks, and travelling and admission to each course, which would amou.nl to at least £7OO a year. Another item, and one regarded by St. Leger bookmakers as “opposed to the ethics of taxation,” was the stamp duty of one halfpenny on each betting ticket issued, irrespective of the amount staked by the backer. As the average wager was 3/- the tax was considered an additional turnover tax of one and a-quarter per cent. Before the advent of the Stamp Duty Act, 10,000 betting tickets ready for use cost. £l/10/-. The same number now cost £24/11/8, and Mr Cunningham estimates that each St. Leger bookmaker would use on the average £4 worth of tickets a week.