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PARIMUTUEL BETTING IS SATISFACTORY Objections to Mechanical Betting Are Trivial Many Points in Its Favor Louisville Ky May 28 After some ten days ob servsition of tho parimutuel machines as operated here and canvassing the opinions of all classes of racing men the writer is ready to go on record that tho machines have come to stay at least so far sis tin Kentucky rsicing associations are concerned As far back sis fifteen years ago lie advocated in various inlluential publications with which he was connected the use of the machines believing the parinintuels to be the fairest and best method of race track specula lion yet devised Tlie experiment now being successfully worked out at Churchill Downs has only served opinionTlie to confirm that early opinion Tlie eastern Jockey Club silmost immediately after its formation devoted no little attention to the parimiituels and it is a fact well known among well informed csistern turfmen that members of the Jockey Club would gladly have advocated the mu tuel plan of speculation if conditions in New York state had been favorable to so radical si change Only changeOnly two objections of any weight have been raised hero to the use of the machines One is that the betting is open sind above board and that an owner or trainer can have no stable secrets once tho form of a horse lias been displayed His knowledge of his ovn horse Is public property and if lie bets in the machines he must perforce take all the worst of it Moreover if lie wagers big money in tho machines every live dollars1 that he invests reduces his own winnings The argument that tho machines make stalde information open to the public is only partly true In the case of horses whose form has been exposed it certainly Is true ISnt in the case of dark horses that have been prepared for cer ¬ tain events and about which the public knows noth ¬ ing it is far from being true On such horses an owner or trainer can get in the machines on a moderate investment probably as profitable or more profitable prices than he could get in the books booksMoreover Moreover the machines are not Intended for heavy speculation but rsitber as si convenience to the pub ¬ lic who wagers only small amounts For the man who desires to hot big money the auction pools as conducted at tho track here afford him every opportunity and a careful inspection of the records of the present local meeting will show that the auc ¬ tion pools In the main will yield just about as liberal odds as the books would do were the slates up in place of the machines machinesThe The other objection and of which more has been made by unthinking writers in the newspapers than by anyltody else is to tho five pqr cent which goes to the associations as remuneration for handling the publics money Just how any sane man could Intrench himself behind this Quixotic bulwark it is dilficult to imagine The machines and the auction pools together require the employment that is the eleven machines In use here and the auction pools of alwnit forty men Some of these men have to bo export accountants and arc paid big salaries while others in charge of the cash receive double or treble tho ssilarles paid to the average bookmakers clerk Two men are employed In the auction pool booth one of whom a wellknown trotting horse pool anc Contlnued on eixtli page PARIMUTUEL BETTING IS SATISFACTORY Continued from first page tioneer receives 5100 per day for his services and more than earns the money Thus it can be seen that a goodly portion of the rakeoff goes toward paying the expenses of running tlie new system of speculation speculationBesides Besides these two chief objections to the use of the machines their introduction has of course thrown a largo number of bookmakers and book ¬ makers clerks out of employment temporarily at least That of course is to be regretted but it has nothing to do with the comparative merits of the parimutucl and the bookmaking systems of speculation speculationAs As opposed to all the arguments that have been put forward against the machines there are also two very important and vitally important reasons wliy and especially at this juncture their use In sections where they can be used is bound to be of great benellt to the turf Chief of these reasons Is the fact that the machines almost entirely do away with the scandal and inconsiderate and irre ¬ sponsible talk that attended racing when the specu ¬ lation was carried on through the medium of books Bookmakers and their dorks do not now gather in hotel corridors and loudly discuss the days racing in such terms as could only leave the worst of im ¬ pressions in the mind of anyone not familiar with the sport There is no loudmouthed talk that this horse was pulled or that somebody or other had that particular jockey or that some particu ¬ lar owner got his from the rear end of the book instead of betting his money in front as an honest man should do doTlioiv Tlioiv is none of this The machines havo no run ¬ ners or agents that can be traveling back and forth between the paddock and the betting ring They have no agents to worm into the confidence of suc ¬ cessful jockevs and to put up jobs In short thoy do not handle any dead ones at all such as form ¬ erly occasionally became defunct through betting ring tactics Of course horses are run short with muttiel betting just as they have heretofore been with the slates up But when horses are stopped with the machines In use there can be no betting ring connivance They are stopped by the owner trainer or jockev in order to secure a better price some other time jhere is no going back behind the machines and getting whatever money may be needed or whatever might have been stipulated There is no laying oven money to show against an even inonev favorite to win and cashing the bet betThe The other argument in favor of the machines is that the parlmiituel is simply a public pool Of course that gws out of the pockets of the public but there have been frequent occasions at the spring meetings here when three or four lucky bookmakers have taken 12VKjO to 1 50000 out of the publle instead of the much smaller amount the privilege to speculate is costing them now S B Weems
