LAYING TOTE ODDS.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume IX, Issue 452, 23 March 1899, Page 17

LAYING TOTE ODDS.

The trotting clubs in Canterbury are determined to stop bookmakers from laying totalisator odds at their race meetings, but still the fielders carry on their business, and of course have to pay the penalty. The latest cases (writes our correspondent) were heard at the Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday of last week, when John Waddell, Nicholas Smith, James Mitchell, Walter Seatree, James McMillan, and George Fuller were charged with having been illegally on the Plumpton Park racecourse on March 4. The club alleged that these men were on the course for the purpose of betting by other means than through the totalisator, and for laying totalisator odds. There was practically no defence, and a fine of 40s and costs was entered up against each defendant. On the same day George Fuller, described as a bookmaker, was charged with having laid totalisator odds at the Hororata races on March 3. A Mrs Reed and two others stated that they gave Fullers 5s for investment on Lapidary in race No. 5, and received a ticket from him. Lapidary won, and paid a dividend of £7 ss, but Mrs Reed did not get any money from defendant, who said the detectives were after him. The magistrate, in giving his decision, spoke strongly on the frequency of these cases. The Court, he said, whs simply inundated with them after race meetings, and there seemed to be no check. The Act provided imprisonment for three months, with or without hard labor, or a fine of £25, or both imprisonment and fine. He would fine Fuller £lO, and order him to go to gaol for fourteen days.