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BILL WOULD INCREASE j DAILY FEE; MUTUEL TAKE t - .....4 SPRINGFIELD, 111., Sept. 29. Thoroughbred horse racing in Illinois will contribute heavily toward the relief of the states unemployed and their families if the bill spon-scored by Senator Victor Michael, of Peoria, and passed by the senate 35 to 1 late yesterday, clears other legislative hurdles. Under this measure the daily license fees of all tracks, except Fairmount Park and Lincoln Fields, would be increased ,000 a day and the tracks percentage for handling the betting in the pari-mutuels would be increased to 8 1-2 per cent. It was said that inasmuch as the volume of money now being handled in the pari-mutuels at all Illinois tracks is about half the amount handled when racing was riding the wave of prosperity three years back, the increase in the mutuel percentage to absorb the tax increase is imperative, otherwise several of the tracks would be forced to close. The daily license fees of from ,500 to ,500 now being paid by tracks in the state is used for agricultural education work, but the new revenue, the bill specifies, is to go for relief. The bill now goes to the house and may come up for the first reading Monday. COLLINSVILLE, 111., Sept. 29. R. S. Eddy, Jr., general manager of Fairmount Park, was well pleased with the receipt of word from Sprjngfield, 111., that the Michael bill, which will permit the Fairmount Jockey Club to raise the mutuel take from six and one-half per cent, to eight and one-half per cent, had passed the Illinois senate by a vote of 35 to 1. As Madison county, in which Fairmount Park is located, does not contain a million population, there will be no advance in the ,500 daily license fee. With a decided decrease in the mutuel handle, something had to be done to aid Fairmount Park if racing was expected to be continued. The management is operating this meeting at a loss and in the event the bill is passed by the house of representatives and is signed by the governor, it will go far ir. helping the Collinsville track.
