DECLINE IN BETTING.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21142, 28 March 1932, Page 8

DECLINE IN BETTING.

totalisator investments; LOWER DOMINION FIGURES. ELLERSLIE'S BIG SHRINKAGE. The absenco of flic surplus cash to bo found in the pockets of racegoers in more prosperous years caused heavy inroads to bo made into the totalisator investments at the six racing and two trottirfg meetings with which the Easter sporting season in the Dominion was opened on Saturday. With an aggregate of £75,871, the racing clubs handled only £1139 more than was put through the machine at Ellerslio alone on Easter Saturday two years ago. The total for all of Saturday's meetings, £105,584, was £36,340 lower than on the corresponding day last year and £118,681 below the grand total of the first, day of the 1930 Easter gatherings, or less than half the 1930 total. .As tho Auckland Racing Club s fixtures at Ellerslio see the largest totalisator turnover when times are good, so also they witness tho heaviest decline when depression compels patrons to bo modest in their speculations. The investments on Saturday fell to £34,045 from £48,800 last year and from £74,732 in 1930, declines of 30 per cent, and 54.4 per cent, respectively. The next greatest fall was at Christchurch where, at tho New Zealand Metropolitan Trotting Club's first day the investments were £24,510, or nearly £7OOO below 1931 and less than half of the 1930 first day. ,< The following table shows in detail the totalisator investments on Saturday, as well as those for tho first days of tho Easter meetings of the past two years:

While the depression is undoubtedly the first cause of the fall in attendances and totalisator speculations, a contributing factor in the drop at Ellerslie on Saturday is to be found in the success of outsiders in the first race, of a very short-price favourite in the second race and then of good dividend-paying horses in the third race. The consequence was that a good deal of the money on the course found its way into a few pockets early in the day, and there it stayed. The majority of the patrons probably considered it inadvisable in their present financial circumstances to risk more on subsequent events in attempts to make up their first losses.

RACING. Auckland <. Riverton . Feilding . 4 Wairarapa . < Greymouth .4 Beaumont *■ 1932. £34,045 13,066 J 1.746 8.710 4,940 3,364 1931. £48,800 14,560 16,912 11.205 5,224 3,533 1930. £74,732 21,143 26.651 23,066 6,216 5,726 Total a ■ £75,S71 £100,234 . £157,534 1 TROTTING. Christchurch Hawera .. £24,510 " 5,203 £31,460 10,230 £49,072 17,053 Total .» £29,713 £41,C90 £66,731 Grand Totals . £105,584 £141,924 £224,265