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MUTUEL REFERENDUM PASSES New York Assembly Votes to Submit Bill to Voters Next Fall — Balloting Is Close. ALBANY, N. Y., May 17— The assembly, after two hours discussion this afternoon, by a vote of 77 to 69 passed the pari-mutuel betting bill resolution. Having already passed the senate, this proposition will be submitted to the voters of the state for a referendum decision at the general election next fall. In the assembly, seventy-six votes are required; consequently the pari-mutuel bill had a close call to defeat. The vote cut sharply across party lines. Assemblyman Anthony J. Can-ney, Democrat, of Erie County, was active in securing the required number of votes for the passage. Thirty Republicans and forty-seven Democrats voted for the amendment. Fourteen Democrats, mostly from New York City, supported the measure. The first proposal to legalize pari-mutuel betting by 1940 was introduced in the state legislature by Assemblyman Norman F. Penny, Republican, of Nassau County, on March 3 last, and was identical in content with the measure sponsored by Senator John J. Dunnigan and approved by the legislature last year. Senator Dunnigan, Democratic minority leader in the senate, introduced the same bill that passed last year on May 9 and at the same time presented a resolution— which was immediately adopted— asking the attorney-general for an opinion on the legality and constitutionality of the two bills. He was mainly interested in learning if the proposition could be presented to the public in the form of a referendum this fafl.
