view raw text
JUDGE COOK ON NEW YORK SITUATION. New York. July 4. —Judge Carroll Cook of San Francisco, who. as attorney for the New California lackey Club, obtained a Supreme Court decision in California legalizing oral betting and the holding of stakes, is in town on a vacation. He was the guest of the Corny Island Jockey Club at gheepebead Kay Saturday, aiiil in discussing the racing situation on the coast he said to a New York Sun man: "The Walker-Otis law passed a year ago in California was coined from the Hart-Agncw law enacted at Albany in l.ms. our eonteatloa that oral betting was not illegal wus sustained by the highest court, anil we also secured an opinion that a stakeholder who does not receive remuneration ir. not a violator of the law. As the situation stands at present in California, oral bets can be made; also cash wagers, providing they are not recorded by the layers of odds, and any person can act as stakeholder, providing lie does not receive pay for his services. These favorable decisions helped racing in California to an Immeasurable degree, and I be-lieve the stakeholder proposition can be declared legal in New York state also. Our anti betting law-is really an anti -book making measure, and as book-making is extinct on the coast we are able io go ahead witli enough freedom to keep the tint alive. "We were naturally much interested in the recent Agncw -Perkins legislation at Albany which prohibits book Basking with or without writing, but we are of the opinion that this new measure will prove Ineffective. There is no such thing as *book making with or without writing. In order to get e lu- slve evidence of hook making I Contend that there must be written records of all transactions, and I think when the matter is carried into th arts by your Jockey club it will be so demonstrated, in my opialoa the directors of race tracks which have been licensed by tin- state to hold running meetings cannot be held criminally liable for lietting for the reason that betting is not a crime in this state. Thai is why I am convinced that the directors liability law will be declared unconstitutional in due lime. Racing men have been persecuted all over the country because the s|Hirt has been generally misunderstood. The turf is a national industry, which gives employ meal to thousands of persons. It involves the investment of millions of dollars in breeding farms am race track property. To make criminals of men who like lo back their Indian ill ;:s to the respective merits of thoroughbreds is going a trnV too far. Kvery sporting event prompts betting, but why an exception should be made of race track betting is a puzzle."
