BETTING SYSTEMS

Taranaki Daily News, 21 February 1935, Page 2

BETTING SYSTEMS

EXPERIMENTS BY THE CLUBS.

INNOVATIONS OF TWO YEARS. ; When the Taranaki Jockey Club two years ago broke away from the New Zealand traditional system of totalisator wagering by introducing the win and place machine it had no idea that its innovation was going to be the start of endless experiments and much arguing. Nevertheless it is greatly to its credit that it has steadfastly kept to its own system, which is ndw firmly established with the New Plymouth and North Taranaki racing fraternity. For a short time after its introduction the win and place system swept the country. All clubs hailed it as the solution, of their troubles. It was never intended to quite do that. The idea was simply to put totalisator wagering on a sounder and more modern basis. Bettors all over the Dominion appeared to have the idea that under the new system it was quite a simple matter to make money from horses—a terrible falacy which they soon found to their cofit. It has never been an easy matter to make money following horses. After about seven or eight months the Voices of a section began to be heard. There was a demand to go back to the old system. Racing and trotting clubs were told that their meetings would be boycotted unless they abandoned the win and place machines. Ballots were taken at certain meetings and these showed a seeming consensus of opinion in favour of the old method. Racing club officials in times of depression especially are prone to become unduly alarmed, and some bodies paid too much attention to this .agitation. Back they went to the old system, expecting that the public would show its appreciation by an increased attendance and totalisator’ turnover. The result, however, was in practically every instance the opposite—the gates and the turnover dropped. To add to their chagrin, progressive bodies such as the Wellington Racing £lub and the Te Arolia Jockey Club, using the win and place system, recorded increased attendances and bigger totalisator turnover. It was evident that either the public did not know what it really desired or that the section that had made the-pro-test was a small one. However, it was obvious by the end of 1934 that despite the die-hard policy of certain clubs the single pool system was in its dying stages except for meetings with small fields.

With the advent of 1935 came two more innovations, both variations of the win and place system. The Stratford Racing Club for its New Year meeting- used two machines, a win machine, and one that paid on a 75-25 basis. Tie success or otherwise of the method has been hard to judge as the meeting was not favoured by good weather. By far the greater amount of the money was passed through the machine that paid the two dividends, and the prices paid by the two machines were confusing at times. Tie Stratford officials were right behind their innovation in their usual enthusiastic and wholehearted manner and in less able hands the system might easily have failed. Nevertheless it must be said that the Stratford club had not the easiest of rows to hoe,- with the Taranaki and Egmont clubs keeping to the win and place method. From Dunedin came a variation of this idea.. At both the trots and the gallops there were two pools, one paying on the 75-25 basis and the other on the place method. As both clubs showed a very definite increase in their turnovers this system must be entitled to consideration. It seems to have undoubted merits where the fields are large, but in the case of many of the races attracting fields of under eight it would appear likely to fail. In the meanwhile the racing public is becoming more and more bewildered. It never knows quite what to expect, but this will not prevent experiments continuing. There is a strong opinion supporting the relicensing of the bookmaker. Should this come about the whole problem will be simplified. Bookmakers all the wdrld over bet only one way—for a win and for a place—and the totalisator would have to operate the same way to hold its own. This has been proved beyond all doubt in Australia, where the machines were being almost put out of existence before adopting thO win and place.