RACING IN AMERICA

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22140, 20 June 1935, Page 12

RACING IN AMERICA

LEGALISED WAGERING VAST BOOM RESULTS NEW YORK. June 14 Horse racing is thriving in the United States, and the betting boom is so vast that legalised wagering this year promises to exceed £100.000,000. Promoters .. and politicians are pushing the sport'for all they are worth, mostly because needy State Governments are anxious to secure anj new form of revenue to balance their budgets. Since 3932 the number of States that have legalised racing and betting has risen from seven to 27, and 10 more have bills before their Legislatures practically assured of passage. Associated with the regular racing is a Luge business based upon pool rooms and wire rooms, where no pool is played and no telegrams are sent Under political coddling, the pool room has expanded until it represents tens of millions of pounds in "bootleg" wagering. Most of it is operated in conjunction with a pjrri-rautuel or totalisator device known as "comeback money wire." Over this wire, money bet in thousands of places throughout the country comes back to the track so that it may be handled through the pari-mutuel and give up its percentage to the promoter and his -political sponsors. Such wires are not permitted in New York, where the Jockey Club rulings are respected. Since 1932, when the inflationary expansion of racing began suddenly, the number of racing fixtures has increased to 2000 from a fraction of that number during the previous two decades, and horses are being worn to a frazzle. Profits have been so enormous from the pari-mutuels that in New Orleans several ■ 'tracks grant admission on tax only, while other tracks allow punters admission on .a coupon clipped from a newspaper. Tho Governor of Connecticut, Mr. Cross, recently vetoed a pari-mutuel measure for his State, because he said the law would take from many and enrich few. He recalled that the Santa Anita track in California, the Narragansett Club in I?bode Island and Rockingham, in New Hampshire, each made to much money in their first season of operation that the entire investment was- returned, with a handsome profit remaining. From the Narragansett track last year the' Rhode Island Government collected £160,000 in betting taxes, representing 31 per cent on the total wagers. The track operators profited by exactly T?.i° amount during tho total « o9 days' racing.