FIGHT FOR TOTALISATOR

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 43, 13 May 1927, Page 12

FIGHT FOR TOTALISATOR

ENGLAND’S CAMPAIGN SUPPORTED BY LEADING NEWSPAPER

An article on the totalisator appearing in the New Zealand supplement of “The Times” is the basis for some illuminating comparisons by the racing correspondent of “The Times.” It is stated in the article that before the introduction of the totalisator to New Zealand racecourses, “bookmakers provided the only means of speculation and contributed nothing to the revenues of the race clubs. Attempts to control them and tax them failed almost without exception. The totalisator quickly lessened the club’s anxiety concerning finance and finally removed it altogether. The amount invested on the machine last year was £8,445,859. Of this some £7,183,136 was paid in dividends, £622,479 was absorbed by State taxation, and £671,483 was retained by the clubs.” WHERE PROFITS GO TO

“The rules of racing in New Zealand,” says “The Times” correspondent, “require that the amount received by the club shall be paid in stakes during the succeeding year. Special permission may be given to expend part of the money on improvements to the club property or to compensate the club if it has suffered from adverse conditions.

“It will be seen that the money deducted from the total investments made with the totalisator is just over 14 per cent., of which amount roughly half goes back to racing and half goes to the Government. The total population of New Zealand is less than 1,500,000, and this population pays just over £1,000,000 to assist their racing and the Government out of their betting. “The population of England and Wales is about 40,000,000, and from these figures it is reasonable to assume that they should be able to assist racing and the Government’s finances to the extent of £266,000,000. Yet at the present time the betting duty is not producing any appreciable sum of money at all in this country. As the article in question points out, attempts to make any money out of taxing bookmakers failed almost without exception. INTERESTING FIGURES “I cannot imagine a better argument in favour of the totalisator. I admit at once that it would not produce £26,000,000, which on the New Zealand figures it should do, but even if it produced only one-third of that amount the advantage to owners and breeders would be enormous. Incidentally, the New Zealand figures are very interesting. Before the betting duty came into operation some bookmakers of standing presented to the Chancel-

lor of the Exchequer certain figures, which showed that if the tax on betting was 2 per cent, on the racecourse and 3£ per cent, away from the racecourse, the total received would be £6,000,000. That amount indicates that it was estimated that the betting turnover in the year in this country was £200,000,000 or somewhere near £6 a head, which from the figures in the article which I have quoted, is almost exactly the same as the amount per head in New Zealand. It is obvious, therefore, that if the totalisator were introduced into this country a very large sum of money would at once become available for the Government, for stakes, for owners, and, if necessary, to subsidise breeders.” LADY MEMBER’S THRUST Lady Astor, one of the Conservative members of Parliament for Plymouth,