WELLINGTON RACING CLUB.

New Zealand Times, Volume LXVII, Issue 3331, 13 January 1898, Page 3

WELLINGTON RACING CLUB.

TO THB EDITOR. Sir, —I observe a special meeting of the Wellington Racing Club is to be held tomorrow (Thursday) for the purpose of deciding whether bookmakers will be licensed to bet at the forthcoming Summer Meeting. I trust the stewards will rise to the occasion and issue no such licenses. The law ol this country does not permit of "tote” betting, and if the stewards do grant licenses to bet, they will be aiding the bookmakers to break the law j for it is well known that at' the last Spring Meeting most of these men were laying " tote odds.” Some ten or twelve men (I believe I am over the number) paid for licenses to bet in the saddling paddock. This opened the door to nearly every ragamuffin who lays the odds to scamper not only about the saddling paddock but over the lawn offering to and laying “the odds.” It should be patent to the stewards that, eventually, the revenue of the club must suffer by admitting these men to bet. It stands to reason that if they can afford to pay seven guineas a day for the right to bet, their calling must be a lucrative one, and one in opposition to the totalisator. The Wellington Racing Club should adopt the same course as the Canterbury Racing Club and refuse to license bookmakers, and request the police to keep a watch for "tote” bettors and have any such prosecuted, as was done after the last Sew Zealand Cup meeting. Some of these men are at the present time serving their sentences in gaol for laying “ tote odds,” and to such of them (their names can easily be ascertained from the police office) as have been convicted the Wellington Racing Club will surely not give them another opportunity of breaking the law. I commend my suggestion, not to issue licenses to bookmakers, to the consideration of the worthy president of the club (Mr Edward Pearce), to the vice-presidents (Messrs Maoarthy and Franklyn) and to the stewards as a whole. Do not let there be a repetition of the Spring Meeting, when the course was like a pandemonium with these people yelling out the odds, whilst their agents and touts were worrying all and sundry to bet with the “books "in place of the machine. —I am, Ac., A Respecter op the Law. 12th January, 1898.