THE BOOKMAKERS AT ELLERSLIE.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume XVI, Issue 930, 2 January 1908, Page 5

THE BOOKMAKERS AT ELLERSLIE.

The A.R.C.’s Summer Meeting saw the metallicians once more operating at Ellerslie, a fact which the majority of patrons appeared to keenly appreciate, judging by the volume of business done. Twenty-eight were calling the odds on Boxing Day and on Saturday. It was specially evident that the facilities for betting granted them by the club were sadly lacking. When an immense fee of £2O per day is charged it is only reasonable to suppose that all those who pay this will be given a position where customers can bet with them. This was not the case at Ellerslie where less than half of the bookmakers could not be reached at all by would-be patrons in the grandstand enclosure. This seems manifestly unjust. A visitor from South Africa, who was present on Cup day, told the writer that, while admiring the course and enclosure, and many of the arrangements, he was simply amazed at the way the bookmakers were treated. In Johannesburg the knights of the pencil stand on a platform with a rail round it from which they are readily accessible to clients. The antiquated method of keeping them behind iron bars as adopted here would not be tolerated for a moment. The idea is worth the consideration of the A.R.C. Committee for the present arrangement is unworthy of the club, and has given much dissatisfaction to the bookmakers and the public alike.