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RACING BILLS INTRODUCED MEASURES FOB. RELIEF OF SPORT PRESENTED IN NEW YORK LEGISLATURE. One Bill Declares that There Can Bo No Bookmaking Without Writing and Other Provides for Amendment of Directors Liability Law. Albany, X. Y., May 11. Senator Robert II. Git-tins Dem. of the" Niagara-Orleans district in Erie County lias introduced in tlie Senate two bills, the passage of which is desired by those Interested in the resumption of horse racing in this state. legislation upon this subject lias been urged by all the prominent men interested in the county fairs, agricultural societies and racing associations of the state. One of the bills proposes to amend the penal laws in relation to the prohibition against keeping gaining establishments. It makes the prohibition apply to places kept for gambling, instead of places used for such purposes; it also narrows the definition of the kind of place referred to. At present the .prohibition applies to any room, shed, tent, tenement, Itooth, building, float or vessel, or any other enclosure. The amendment strikes out the words "or any otiier enclosure or place," which would have the effect of excluding race track enclosures from the prohibition against keeping betting establishments. It also provides that owners of property are not deemed guilty unless they knowingly lease it for the purpose and allow bets or wagers. The other measure defines bookmaking more clearly and provides there can be no bookmaking without writing, and in this act shall mean the laying of or publishing of odds to all coiners and the public. It. T. Wilson has been in Albany representing the Jockey Club, and after the introduction of the Git-tins bill gave out an interview in which lie said that the racing associations subject to the jurisdiction of the Jockey Club would not open their gates this year unless the two bills introduced by Senator Gittins become laws. "Wc do not ask or expect," said Mr. Wilson, "a repeal or modification of the Ilart-Agnew law. Since that act has been construed by the Court of Appeals the racing associations have striven to faithfully observe its provisions. We do not seek to restore the law- giving to the officers and directors of racing j associations special immunity. We do ask, however, legislative construction of the extraordinary provision which by the amendment made last year to Section 07.! of the Penal Code imposes liability upon the owner of nny place in which a Iet may be made upon any event, such as a baseball game, a horse race, a polo match or cvuit-a private game of cards without the consent or knowledge of such owner. "We do not believe it possible that the Legislature of 1010 could have intended any such result and yet wo tire-advised that this will be tfie effect or the amendment. We therefore have asked the legislature to amend Section 117.! by eliminating the amendment of last year, leaving the officers and directors of associations conducting outdoor sports in precisely the same iosition as the directors of any other corporation, liable for the crimes which they aid or abet or which are committed with their knowledge or consent. This is merely an effort on our part to protect ourselves against unwarranted arrests and continuous expensive litigation resulting from an ambiguous statute. "The other law asked of the Legislature defines lMiokmaking as the laying or publishing of odds to all comers or to the public with writing. Book-making has "come to have a well-understood meaning, at least bookmaking as heretofore practised by the written laying of odds and inviting the public to accept them, llut bookmaking without writing is a new term, conceived by the ingenious mind which framed the legislation of last year. We simply ask that the term he defined in order that wo may more clearly know exactly what the Legislature seeks to suppress. The language proposed is precisely that inserted by the Senate last year in the Agncw bill, which was stricken out on the following day, not because the Senate had changed its conviction that the definition was fnir. but liectiuse of an undefined apprehension from a non-legislative source. "The promoters of the Ilart-Agnew legislation have repeatedly and always declared that they did not oppose horse racing nor Intend to interfere with private betting between individuals, but before racing is resumed in this state the Jockey Club and the officers of the associations must have and are entitled fo have reasonable assurance that if a race meeting is conducted in a proper and orderly manner the officers will not be subjected to arrest for acts committed by others on their grounds without their consent or knowledge. In other words, we ask, first, that the directors of any association, racing or otherwise, shall not be held responsible for acts committed without their consent or knowledge, and, secondly, that the Legislature shall interpret the meaning of bookmaking without writing."
