THE AUSTRALIAN BETTING RING.

Otago Witness, Issue 2325, 22 September 1898, Page 36

THE AUSTRALIAN BETTING RING.

Some years ago an owner was able to regard the combined bookmakers of Australia as a bank from which he could extract thousands, provided he was willing to risk his own money, .tnd was lucky enough to posses 0 a horse capable of winning one of the big handicaps of the year. Now (says the Australasian) all that is changed. Manfred, at the time he was backed for the Melbourne Cap, bad no tetter chance of Avinning than had First Water in 1883, but whereas Man fr-xl could only be backed for about £7000, Mr W. Gannon and Mr A. Joseph, the cu>mmissionet for First Water, got £80,090 without having to take less than 100 to 5. The hundreds of bookmakers who now wield the pencil cannot — or will not— find more money for an owner than the small band who fielded in 1870 could do. The leading bookmakers say that the cause of the ring being weakened is due to registration. They got on better when the public were forced to discriminate between the good and the bad for themselves They claim ihat when Oaptain Suincueh and Mr A. K. Finlay deoided to register bookmakers they dealt a deadly blow at the strength of the ring. Theoretically the idea of vegiolraUon ia good. It should make for tho prt lootion of t'olh backer and layer. But the bookmaker — wo mean the man who was established 25 years ago — asserts that the V.R.C. ComjniALee has shown no discrimination in granting liconses. They have taken in all and sundry, for the sake of the £25 license fee. There may be something in this contention. When Captain Standish was at tho head of the old Tattersall's Club a man had to undergo a long apprenticeship before he was admitted to the rooms. We do not altogether agree with the contention of the old ring-men, however. The falling out of the' old backers, who bet hundreds, and the filling of their places with men who are contaut to lose' £5 on a race, has probably had more to do with ttw* loes of power by the pencillers than the initiation of the registration system. Moreover, the backer of to-day is a wary bird. Constant racing has made him so. In the good old days the backer only came upon the scene at intervals. He bet heavily, and was content to lot the bookmaker possess the knowledge while he bet for amusement. Nowadays the backer knows as much as the layer, and often a good deal more. He and the bookmaker are glaying the same game. Each is to get a bit," and it is only the fafifeness of the price which enables the layer to do a little more than hold his own.