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BETTING CASE TO COURT OF APPEALS. New York, November 7. Before another racing campaign on the New York tracks rolls around the Court of Appeals probably will hand down ait important decision regarding the oral betting system which has prevailed since the sport was resumed three years ago. Two men were arrested at the Aqueduct track last spring, charged with violating the Hart-Agnew law. When they were tried by a police magistrate they were found guilty, the evidence tending to show that they took cash wagers after laying oral odds to all comers. They accepted wagers from detectives who were strangers. The case was carried to the Supreme Court-where the police magistrates verdict was sustained. Then the Appellate Division again decided against the alleged lawbreakers and in a lengthy opinion dicredited the famous golf ball decision handed down in 1908 by the late William J. Gaynor, Another opinion by Supreme Court Justice Scudder, which allowed a certain amount of freedom, was overruled by the Appellate Division, much to the surprise of the sporting fraternity. The case was promptly taken to the Court of Appeals for a final ruling, and if the lower courts nre sustained it is said that oral betting on the New York racecourse next season will amount to little or nothing. The Appellate Division, in reviewing the case, set forth that the acceptance of wagers from all comers, which means business with Tom, Dick and Harry, even without the display of odds or the use of paraphernalia, was "bookmaking" in the full sense of the word; also that persons who visited the tracks daily and made a practice of laying odds orally were professional bettors or bookmakers. Retting as a business or a profession is prohibited by law, according to the Appellate Division, so that if this point is approved by the Court of Appeals, price-makers will find many serious obstacles in their paths if they attempt to operate In 1917. Private wagers among friends will be permitted, as usual, for that form of speculation is not a violutlon of the law.
