BETTING PLAN: NO OFFICIAL ACTION AS YET

Greymouth Evening Star, 31 March 1950, Page 4

BETTING PLAN: NO OFFICIAL ACTION AS YET

WELLINGTON, This Day (P.A.). —“I have not accepted or rejected it,” said the Minister of Internal Affairs,. Mr W. A. Bodkin, today, commenting on published reports that the scheme for off-course betting on the totalisator, submitted to the Government by the New Zealand Racing and Trotting Conferences, was understood to have been rejected.

Mr Bodkin indicated that he hoped to take the matter to the Cabinet next week.

“I would not consider approving or rejecting the scheme without a further conference with the racing and trotting . representatives, and I have not been in a position to do so up to the present,” said the Minister.

‘ ‘ The matter was referred to the Treasury, to my department, and to the Post and Telegraph Department for their comments. Some of the reports have been received and "L hope to be able to take the matter to the Cabinet next week,” concluded Mr Bodkin.

A report published in the press this morning stated: —

The Government has informed the Racing and Trotting Conferences that their proposals for off-course betting cannot be entertained because they would involve the Government in an expenditure far in excess of the amount it is prepared to carry. The conferences are said to have submitted proposals to the Minister of Internal Affairs (Mr W. A. Bodkin) in which it was suggested that 'the Post Office should undertake the transmissions of off-course betting transactions, as the conferences were unable to arrange for the establishment of the proposed betting shops. This proposition, it is said, would involve the Post Office in work which it has neither the staff nor the equipment to carry out, and therefore Mr Bodkin declined to take to the Cabinet a proposition which he could not personally recommend.

The Government has thus thrown back to the racing and trotting authorities the problem of providing for off-course betting, which was supported by a referendum. None of the advertised positions which would have been created under the scheme has been filled, although applications closed some time ago.