Sporting & Dramatic REVIEW AND Licensed Victuallers’ Gazette. With which is incorporated the Weekly Standard. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 1907. THE DOUBLE TOTALISATOR.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume XV, Issue 886, 28 February 1907, Page 5

Sporting & Dramatic REVIEW AND Licensed Victuallers’ Gazette. With which is incorporated the Weekly Standard. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 1907. THE DOUBLE TOTALISATOR.

It is rumoured that the Auckland Racing Club is contemplating the installation of the double machine at the approaching autumn meeting. If this is really carried out it will unquestionably be a very popular step, for there is an undoubted fascination about the double totalisator owing to the tempting odds obtainable. The C.J.C. and the W.R.C. have both adopted the double machine, and have proved beyond, question that it is a means for speculation which the public like to have. That this does not only apply to the Southern centres has been proved up to the hilt by the Takapuna Jockey Club, which club has tried the new method of betting for several meetings with conspicuously successful results. The Auckland Racing Club has not so far adopted the scheme, but signs are not wanting that pressure of public opinion will bring about its appearance at Ellerslie. The reason for the popularity which the double totalisator enjoys is not far to seek. It has long been realised that since the inauguration of the system of paying two dividends it is very difficult for the average punter to win money on a racecourse. Even when he manages to back the right horse the dividends for the most part rule small owing to thirty-five per cent, having been deducted from the amount invested on the machine. The small bettor is beginning to realise that if he is able to hold his own he has done very well, for the odds are invariably against him. This is where the fascination of the double machine comes in, for a lucky investment may set a man up for life. Thus when Captain Shannon and Star Rose won at Riccarton the dividend was one which ran into thousands of pounds. At Takapuna we have seen a dividend paid which was very close to four figures. It must follow that where there is a chance of this sort of return for a pound invested the public will flock to tne machine in ever-increasing numbers. As to whether it is an additional incentive to gambling, we prefer to say nothing, holding emphatically to the opinion, despite the socalled reformers, that every man has a perfect right to do what he likes with his own money. It would seem th it the double totalisator has come to stay, and its general adoption is simply a matter of time. All clubs are in reality merely catering for the public, and the successful ones are those which learn what the public want and give it them. No doubt this will be the case with the Auckland Racing Club.