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PARIMUTUEL BETTING IN FRANCE How the System Came Into Use and How It Is Operated by the Government Sterling Hellig writes from Paris of the pari mutuel OH its native heath in the following fashion fashionThe The French government Itself administers the parimutuel system of betting on the track as a lesser gambling evil and in the name of Parisian prosperity prosperityYears Years ago they learned that mere spectacular horse racing appeals only to the rich and none too much to them This was as long ago as 1S87 when the famous Goblet circular stopped short all betting and put a whole Paris season to the bad financially financiallyLong Long before bookmakers with their only cer ¬ tain capital of a big advertising umbrella failed to meet the growing needs of the democracy for betting Up there rose a genius Joseph Oiler the inventor of the parimutuel at first called the totalizer a great omnibus booth hauled to the track having numerous dials to indicate the number of flat bets put on each horse When the race was run they totalized the dollar bets on all the losers and divided them among the total dollar bets upon the winner less ten per cent for M Oilers pocket pocketThe The democracy had confidence in the expensive omnibuses M Oilers success was so vast that he lost his head In the full Boulevard des Italiens lie set up his great Agence Oiler where no matter who the young clerk unprotected as of Sundays by his girl and in particular the middleaged trusted employe could put his dollar or his hundred on a horse while passing by to lunch It was too much We cant have public gambling in midParis was the general sentiment and the judicial appa ¬ ratus promptly declared M Oilers vast plant Paris rental twenty totalizing omnibuses and the rest a game of chance not only in town but out on the track as well wellIt It was a heavy blow to democratic gambling The bookmakers risking no expensive apparatus came back and were tolerated ten years but dem ¬ ocracy does not like to trust its cash to an unknown man with an umbrella and as last bookmaking welching scandals brought about the Goblet cir ¬ cular in 1SS7 At one fell swoop all gambling was prohibited on all Parisian tracks tracksFirst First there were trackside riots Then attend ¬ ance at the races fell oft so alarmingly that the Parisian springsummer season felt the Influence sporting Paris languished wealthy tourists stayed not fashions had no climax in the unattended race meets leading up to the Grand Prix and Paris com ¬ merce joining with the influential race societies horse breeding and agricultural syndicates forced the government to reestablish mutuel betting bettingThe The bookmakers became gentlemen No money passed iipoti the track There was no betting ring there is none now The gentlemanly bookmakers just lounged at ease in certain parts of each subur ¬ ban paddock the mushroom pavilion for Long champs and took bets by nods and fingers from sports they could trust At night bookmakers and sports met at the club of the Boulevard and paid their differences differencesOf Of course this close bookmaking could not bring prosperity to the Parisian tracks The democratic pelouse entrance price is only forty cents the swell pesage 4 yet even on the fashionable Grand Prix this year the cheap entrances ran up to 1450000 francs against 1040000 for the pesage Tlie cheap public by its numbers is the true Parisian money producer and on ordinary race days its receipts are triple those of the more fashionable side with its deadheads owners club members and their friends And in those days when betting was the appanage of a few nodandfinger sports the paying fashion ¬ able side receipts likewise had fallen lamentably lamentablyFor For Parisian prosperity they called back M Oiler He was ready with a new Invention called the counting ticket a good thing for him be ¬ cause today the privilege of making it is all thats left him himWith With the counting ticket mutuel betting could expand to the needs of Parisian democracy to blow its hardearned money Also the vast mob of moneyspending tourists who had no acquaintance to bet on parole and ninetenths of the fashion ¬ ables whose parole was no good found that the parismutuels filled a longfelt want wantParismutuels Parismutuels dont mean Paris mntuals Par is bet mutuel is mutual mutual liet but the s tagged to each for plural makes pads bets look like the name of the town townThese These counting tickets by ingenious order num ¬ bers show at a glance the race horse and number of unity bets sold by the booth up to your tickets issue on the horse you bet on onIn In the first year 1SSS the parismutuels held 100000000 francs of stakes M Oiler whose com ¬ mission was reduced to eight per cent thus pock ¬ eted S000000 francs less what he had to give back to the race societies But they were glad to have his system and were tender with him himOnce Once again it was too good He who built the Moulin Houge and lost it the father of the Jardin de Paris the Casino the Olympia and the Iloche chouart Swimming Baths has always erred by doing things too well In 1S01 the French parliament edified by the jierfectly correct functioning of bis parismutuels complimented M Oiler authorized all race societies to use his system and then coolly took it from him himYes Yes the French state authorized the system on condition that itself should handle and distribute all its profits What these profits were last year you can see for yourself They were eight per cent on 21442770 francs the total sum risked in tha parismutuels around Paris as follows Longchamps Ei24ri040 francs Chantilly 104GOS40 francs Au teuil 74CS145 francs St Cloud 359 1U5 francs Vincennes 11217700 francs St Ouen 32o4SCyO francs MaisonsLaflitte oSOS3G50 francs Enghlen 127040 francs and Le Tremblay 1C740SSO francs francsEight Eight per cent the French state raked off last year from almost 00000000 francs Five million dollars it took from the pockets of Parisians only not all France just Paris just to hold their stakes ten minutes And this is the rakeoff not the losses of Parisians ParisiansWhat What doesthe French state do with the great sums wrung from race track betting in and around Paris Much is said of charity and hygiene and it is of course all that much gained Well charity gets two per cent 0000000 francs hygiene one per cent C000000 francs one per cent goes to agricultural prizes and four per cent 12000000 francs is handed over to the race societies whose tracks produce the money for their prizes expenses profits and their settlement with M Oiler OilerHecently Hecently the writer showed the flowered paddock of the Grand Prix where a palace iu cream stone extends on until it is lost in greenery Up and down its spreading stairways flit delicious women beyond counting in their creams and roses mauves pearls and pale blues lit up by plumes of wild green orange carmine black white purple Splendid creatures In long mantles of white lace laceOn On Grand Prix day its public was a full half million Every race day of the week throughout the Longchamps season 40000 C0000 80000 per ¬ sons pay their forty cents entrance to it and when Loiigchainps closes it is Auteiiil Cliantilly St Cloud Vincennes St Ouen Malsous Enghien or Le Tremblay or simultaneously two or three together with or without Loiigchaiups They are racing around Paris all the year except midwinter midwinterThe The Parisian form sheet includes vast material Every daily lias Its great race service indicating winners for each race with reasoned chat of past performances of horse and jockey of stable owner trainer weather track conditions all material for going daffy
