view raw text
AUSTRALIA TO ABOLISH BOOKMAKER. llookinaking has no secure or satisfactory position in any of the States of the Australian Commonwealth, and where the system is tolerated it is about on its last legs. The Premier of Western Australia has just informed the Parliament of the State that his Government intended to do away with street betting, and to abolish the bookmaker fiom the race course, where he now legally does business in competition with the totalizator machine. In Victoria, the viewpoint is the raising of funds for the public treasury. At this particular juncture the State Government wants money quickly, and in two days the taxation of bookmakers bill was put through, and an estimated 70,000 pounds secured right away. The premiers reply to a members "why not tlip totalizator?" interjection was "that was a matter for debate, which would occupy much time, and the opportunity to tax somebody would be lost." The hill was rushed through so that the State could secure its levy on each bet made at the Melbourne Cup meeting. A writer in a Melbourne journal says of the situation: Betting is a means of living, not a luxury, to the bookmaker, who is to pay the tax on tickets. Some members of Parliament talked of the tax being passed on to the public by shortening the edds, but on the race course competition will prevent the odds becoming any shorter than they are now. Backers think them pretty cramped as it is. Were the layers limited to a few men something might be done towards passing the burden on, but there are many licensed men at work in the enclosures nowadays, and any scheme of cramping prices would cause breakaways for the sake of securing custom. Apart from that the public is under no obligation to bet, and a backers strike would be calamitous to bookmakers. But the bookmakers will grumble and give Sir Alexander Peacock the Premier the money he wants rather than relinquish laying the odds. London Sportsman.
