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COURT RULING ON BREAKAGE State of Massachusetts and Suffolk Downs Hit Each Lose Nearly Quarter of Million. BOSTON, Mass., July 28 Massachusetts Supreme Court ruled today that race tracks operating under the mari-mutuel system of betting within the state have been computing breakage erroneously and limited breakage in the future to a maximum of 9 cents, regardless of the wager. Overruling a Superior Court decision on the suit brought by John L. Feeney of Cambridge against Suffolk Downs, the court held the tracks have been computing breakage on the even dollar, instead of the full amount of the wager. The bench ruled Feeney should have received .70, instead of .60, when he collected- the show bet on the horse Pharlock in 1937. FEENEY SUES. Feeney sued for the 10 cents on the contention that the .36 to be paM off on each dollar of his wager should have been multiplied by two, or a total of .72. In this case, the breakage would have amounted to only 2 cents, and as Massachusetts tracks pay off to the even dime, Feeney would have received .7f on his wager. Instead, the court held the breakage should be computed on each dollar of the bet. In this way, the track deducted 6 cents on each dollar, reducing the winnings to 1.30 to 1, or .60 to a ticket. The breakage in this instance was 12 cents instead of 2. Since the track and the state equally share the breakage in Massachusetts, the decision is expected to cost each approximately 50,000 annually.
