Record Betting oh Racing

Greymouth Evening Star, 31 July 1946, Page 5

Record Betting oh Racing

Nearly £18,750,000 Last

Season A record sum of £18.748,552 was invested on the totalisator at racing and trotting meetings in New Zealand in the racing year which closed with last Saturday’s meetings. The 1944-45 I betting record was exceeded by £6,700,000, and the investments in" the boom year 1920-21, were . exceeded by £8,600,000. > For the first time tn history, stakes exceeded £1,000,000, the total of £1,078,929 being made up of £736,244 ■for race meetings, and £342,685 for trotting club programmes. Included in the racing stakes was .£24,033 for 123 trotting events. The galloping stakes had an average value of £419, an inducement which leaves little wonder at the high prices now being realised for yearlings and proved bloodstock. The average value of all trotting clubs' races was £535. In Canterbury, the betting .totalled £4 058,567, a remarkable amount for a district which holds a little more than one-seventh of the adult population of the whole Dominion. With two days’ fewer meetings, trotting betting was 50 per cent higher than the race meeting wagering. The average investments on the 10 days’ racing at Riccarton were £113,345, and at Addington £121,941. About £120,000 was invested on trotting races included in racing and hunt . club programmes in Canterbury. The average investments on-.all race days throughout New Zealand were: —gallops, £57,571; trotting, £70,353. Apart from transport, admission charges and incidentals, racecourse betthw cost the public of New Zealand no less than £3,163,800 in the last 12 months. That sum represented deductions from investments and dividends for taxes and clubs’ proportion. By its tax of 5 per cent, on investments and 5 per cent, on dividends the Government was the big winner, taking £1,757,000. The clubs’ proportion exceeded £1,306,000 —more than the total amount given in stakes —while it is safe to say the clubs in general obtained more than £50,000 representing the “fractions on dividends calculated. The Government’s share of. proceeds from racing and trotting would be reduced by about £35,000, representing refunds of taxation but. without any expense, it netted at least £1,720,000 from the racegoing public, or more than-five times the taxation in the depression year, 1932-33.