TREASURY WINDFALL

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 19983, 28 October 1927, Page 5

TREASURY WINDFALL

DOG-RACING CRAZE BENEFIT FOB BUDGET TAXES ON ADMISSION AND BETTING. Ten thousand pounds a week, it is estimated, is being received by the Treasury as a result of the greyhound racing boom in Britain, writes the Post’s London correspondent, under date September 22. Mr. Winston Churchill, Chancellor of the Exchequer, must smile his broadest smile when at breakfast time he reads of the hundreds of thousands who attend greyhound race meetings throughout the country. When he compiled his Budget in April, greyhound lacing had not begun, and therefore the whoUt of this revenue i.s ”baksheesh.” The figure quoted was arrived at on the basis that at eight meetings in the various towns and cities the average attendance was 410,000 people per week. Assuming that 75 per cent, patronise the ‘‘popular” side at an entrance fee of Is 2d, this produces In entertainment tax £3650 each week. The remaining 25 per cent, are catered, for in the higher-priced scats, which means another £3650 from the same tax. It is almost impossible to estimate the amount of money laid out in bets by the public, but as there are seven races each night a well-known authority calculates that at the very least, each person speculated five shillings during the week. In some instances bete run into hundreds of pounds, but it is mainly small wagering. At five shillings a head, the bookmakers would receive considerably over £lOO,OOO a week in stakes, anl as they pay a Bets Tax of 2 per cent., the Treasury would be entitled to £2,000 a week.

The weekly attendances. The following attendance statistics were obtained from Press Association correspondents un the spot:— Per week. White City .. .. 200,000 Manchester .. 58,000 Leeds .. .. »• 40,000 Birmingham •• •« 36,000 Blackpool •• •• 35,000 Sheffield 20,000 Burnley . .••• .. 20,000 Southend 5,000 At Harrington one night the attendance was estimated at .35,000. Mr. Churchill budgeted for a revenue of £5,800,000 from the entertainment duty this financial year, as against £5,714,000 received in the preceding year, and £6,000,000 from betting, as compared with £835,000 received in 1926-27. Greyhound racing should help to exceed the figures contemplated last April. Two More Tracks. Another greyhound racing company has tobe added to the already long list. The Warwickshire and International Kacing Company was formed as a private company on September 13, with a capital of £lO,OOO Ln £1 shares. Objects are to use electrical hares for a system of racing greyhounds and other animals; to acquire land and premises or a lease thereof upon which to build, a course for greyhound racing and other purposes. Birmingham, which already has two greyhounl racing tracks, is to have a third, land having been secured at Perry Bar. Of course (as one writer points out) the revenue is not all pure increase. People who pay to see greyhounds race would in many cases have paid for admission to some other taxed entertainment, and many of the bets made on dogs might otherwise have been made on horses. That the new sport will draw money and attendance from others long established must be taken for granted; and Lord Lonsdale’s proposal about evening horse races, impracticable though everyone else seems to find it, at least suggests that the turf may feel a draught. Still there is room for all, and on balance Mr. Chamberlain should gain.