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♦ 5 Ashley Cole Strongly Opposed To Off-Track Betting in N. Y. I s t ie p, p ie . l" J • |* = l" l?= j" "* *" f ?• is J | | ! set ?* I Z j •■ of i ;r I I l_ II. I J I i c_ .y ;j ;e, but ut j j I the ie for or the .e [S[ a a s 1_ no es rs ig e- ay did id e- in B. lh and the £d J* *■ *« ry e*J 6°- JP *■ El E1 o- at at who ho m in with th i ,g ,5 ,4 ,4 ,3 13 13 il 1 il i0 10 i0 i0 0 0 98 18 Commission Chairman States* Legalization Would Lead to End of Pari-Mutuel Racing 9 By BOB HORWOOD Staff Correspondent NEW YORK, N. Y., June 20.— Ashley T. Cole, chairman of the New York State Racing Commission, declared this morning that he believed that any extension of the present pari-mutuel law to legalize off-• track betting would raise a storm of public opinion against racing similar to that which led to prohibition and lead to the end of pari-mutuel racing in New York State. Much later in his testimony before the joint legislative committee to study horse racing, Cole urged that New York let some other state, preferably a resort state, such as Florida, be used as a labora-:" tory for an experiment in off -track betting, adding that he did not feel that richest of the states and the financial center of the nation should be the first to go after what he termed "any such grubby scheme to raise revenue. Senator Arthur Wicks, chairman of the legislative committee which bears his name, was again absent on "pressing state busi-jg ness," with Senator Harry Gittleson, Dem-,_ ocrat, of Brooklyn, presiding over this mornings session, as he did yesterday when former racing commission chairman Herb-1S ert Bayard Swope presented a case for off- track betting. Vice-Chairman Elmer L. Kellam, an assemblyman; Senator George T. Manning and Henry Neddo and assem-m blymen W.. J. Reid and J. Sidney Levine a were also in attendance. Commissioner Cole was flanked by Francis P. Dunne, steward representing the commission at the L New York tracks, and commission secretary 7 Harry Millar. Egan Starts Questioning John Egan, attorney for the Wicks committee, . opened this mornings hearing in 1 the meeting hall of the Bar Association of " New York by asking commissioner Cole to introduce himself and continued to ques-10 tion the commission chairman occasionally Y until Senator Gittleson took over the ques-a_ - tioning at the close of the hearing, Cole said that he has been a member of f the N. Y. State Racing Commission since 1942, chairman since 1942 and has made a study of off-track betting since 1944. He e said that the commisison took a stand 3 against off -track betting in the fall of 1944 i in response to a request by Ednyfed Will-in iams of Illinois, then chairman of the Na-B. tional Association of State Racing Com-ise - missioners. cole revealed that, at that time, the then a chairman, Swope, had been in favor of off-"e " track betting, but thstt commissioners Ed-P- " ward Dows and Cole opposed it and their r opinion formed the report to the NASRC. • Cole added that the NASRC has consistent-"d ~ ly opposed off-track betting since that time, always unanimously, although the e Massachusetts Commission abstained on ? one occasion because an off-track betting • bill was pending in that state. The New • York Commission chairman said that he • had drawn the resolution opposing off-ed track betting recently adopted unanimously y at the San Francisco convention of the e NASRC. Reads From 1947 Commission Report Commissioner Cole then read those pages of the 1947 Commission report which re-in _ lated to off-track betting, after stating that in that year there was a stronger move to-an ward legalizing such betting than at present. _ This report said that racing would be e reduced to an instrumentality for gam-— bling; that patrons would have no occasion _ to attend the races and concluded that I a lottery would be a better means of in-— _ creasing revenue. The 1947 report also 0 commented op Senator Crawfords bills to 0 license bookmakers and questioned if those not licensed would desist from their activ-,t _ ities, and said that the problem of book-I makers taking out-of-state bets would con-7 _ tinue to be a police problem. The report t also said that off -track betting would "put it the state in the gambling business," and d said that this was not the case at present, t, the state merely taxing. It also referred d to the "sinister taint" the state would incur ir by operating a chain of gambling halls, s, however legal they were made. Asked by Egan if he had other objections IS to off-track betting, commissioner Cole ie said he did. He then read from Section 1, 1 Article 9, of the State Constitution adopted d in 1846, the paragraphs prohibiting gam-i0 j_ bling "of any kind," and referred to the ie amendment added in 1939 which permits ;s pari-mutuel wagering for state revenue. 2 Cole at this point injected an attack on the "e* constitutionality of the "ODwyer bite," by y which the City of New York took an addi- t" a ASHLEY COLE i v s e * ;t in n . " k y y d n - - 1- tt e at £ d tt -• !r e d g _ e j. l _ l~ _ be m k ■• Jt in n -r to ! J " :" - in in !n by ,y ie in 5* ld r" L 7 . 1 " Y - f e 3 i - a " " r • ~ e ? • • • y e _ _ e _ I _ 0 to 0 _ _ t it d t, d ir s, IS ie 1, 1 d j_ ie ;s 2 "e* by y t" tional 5 per cent. This is now being reduced at the rate of 1 per cent a year. Cole said that this "ODwyer bite" had an immediate effect on revenue to New York State, which fell off 8 million dollars the first year it was imposed, while the general trend at the nations tracks was upward. Later in the hearing, under ques- tioning by Senator Gittleson, Cole said that he believed that the "ODwyer bite" cost the state 10 million dollars annually revenue by cutting betting and estimated that, in his opinion, that was all the rev-e enue that could be gained from off-track betting. In this connection, Cole sharply disagreed with yesterdays estimate by Swope, who declared that the state would receive from 90 to 100 million dollars from taxation on off-track betting. No Amendment Needed In response to a question by attorney Egan, Cole said that he did not think any further amendment to the state constittt- tion was necessary to legalize off-track tot- ting, but that it could be done by legisla- tive action. f The commission chairman then said that he had read the original article of the state constitution to demonstrate that for least 106 years the people of the state had been opposed to gambling. Cole said that he was not himself opposed to gambling, remarking that he had operated a successful faro bank while a child and in later years enjoyed poker and betting on the races, a practice which he discontinued since becoming chairman of the racing commission. However, he said, it was evident that for 106 years, or more, the people of the state had considered betting im-7 proper. Cole said that he felt that the legislators should be "very wary" about broadening the base"t f the gambling which has now be-_ come legal without listening to what the people have to say. He added that "if such a scattering of horse parlors over the state as is now proposed had been tagged onto the original pari-mutuel amendment, I am sure that it would tiave been overwhelm-e ingly defeated. The churches will surely oppose it now, and I know that one na-_ tional church organization intends to heard by this committee." Cole then turned to reports on off-track betting as conducted in England. Ireland, Australia and New Zealand, He did not make any reference to off -track betting France, where it has been conducted under government regulation for 20 years, or Germany and Italy, which were also cited by Swope. Referring to the report issued last year by a committee of the Church of Eng- land, headed by the Archbishop of Canter bury, and which found little or no evil gambling, he said that "the rug has been pulled from under Archbishop Fisher" the insertion of a leaf in the copy of the report for which he paid three shillings, which it is stated that this report does not reflect the views of the Church of England as a whole, and states the anxiety of a por- I Continued on Page Forty -Three Ashley Cole Opposed To Off-Track Betting j Believes Legalization in N. Y. Would Kill Pari-Mutuel Racing J Continued from Page Five k, tion of the Church concerning the evils of " gambling. £ Cites West Australia as Example f Cole said that off -track betting in West ] Australia had failed to curb the activities ] of bookmakers and that there were com- 1 plaints of disorderliness and the presence of women and children at off-track betting t places in Dublin. These complaints did not i go so far as to suggest that off -track betting be repealed. j The commission chairman said that part of the duty of the racing commission was J the preservation of the present set-up for 1 the state, which obtained 35 million dollars in revenue last year. It is not, Cole said, £ part of our duty to broaden the base and t scatter betting all over the state. He added that advocates of off -track betting say that t these rooms or offices will not be placed 1 near schools or churches, declaring that t there "must be something wrong with it if * it cant be located near a school." * Cole then said that operation of off-track r betting offices, if they are legalized, would ■ be feasible by the race track managements, . and later stated that he felt the tracks, as J investors in racing, should be offered this J privilege, but declared that the tracks were J opposed to such a program. Cole said that 1 he did not believe that any law could compel £ the tracks to assume this operation. Later v in the hearing, Senator Gittleson suggested j that if the tracks were told that "they k couldnt bet inside the fence, if they didnt r offer betting outside," they might change their opinion. Cole said that he suspected _ that in that case, the tracks would only be forced to close a little sooner than they I would have to in any case if off -track bet- c ting were legalized. Would Hurt States Revenue Again referring to possible forms off- a track betting might take, Cole quoted from rj the late H. L. Straus, president of Tropical g Park and the American Totalisator Co., who c told the Maryland legislature some years ago that a betting room giving the public pari-mutuel service, fluctuating odds, im- y mediate pay-off, descriptions of the races t would "require a space almost as large as a c race track, and pare away most of the r revenue to the state." In response to a ques- o tion from Senator Gittleson later in the hearing, Cole said that the difference be- l in tween the bootlegger and the bookmaker n was that the former could be easily halted u because of his large inventory and ware- c houses, while the bookmakers "office is his hat." n The latter part of this mornings hear- c ing was devoted largely to a question- a ing of Cole by Senator Gittleson, who said fc in an aside, "I think the trots are the only t good part of racing." Gittleson, however, y said that he could not humanly fail to be impressed by such reports he had read as c that of the English Royal Commission, which stated that gambling was hot harm- d ful. Cole deprecated the value of this re- d port. c Asked by Gittleson if it was not true that c the track heads had also opposed pari- tl mutuel betting, Cole said that with the b by exception of the late Joseph E. Widener, ti they had opposed the machines. Cole added that many older men do not like k pari-mutuels and the changes they have n brought to racing at this time. He then referred nostalgically to "the golden age a at of racing" at Saratoga, when a meeting w would lose 0,000 or so, and the deficit ti was made up by the Whitneys and Bel- V monts. Cole admitted that no one, after fi I c a rj g c y t c r o l in n u c n c a fc t y c d d c c tl b by ti k n a at w ti V fi March 15, has the money to make up such f deficits in these days. Turning to the effect of off-track bet- 1 ting on attendance at the tracks, Cole cited * the former dean of bookmakers, Tom Shaw, IJ T as an expert of 50 years experience, who declared the drop would be 20 per cent. Swope had estimated a five per cent decline. When Cole again referred to the clerical opposition to gambling, stating that it I was permissible in Jamestown, but brought the offender to the stocks in New England, Gittleson recalled that Harvard, Yale and Dartmouth had been founded with funds obtained from lotteries. Cole stated, parenthetically, at one point the hearing that the New York commission was opposed to large purses, say- F ing, "Hundred thousand dollar races are 0 circuses." p At the close of the hearing, committee- q man Levine, evidently feeling that Senator Gittleson was taking too strong a tone, asked the acting chairman to make it clear I that the Wicks Committee wished to ob- s tain views from all sides and was retaining an open mind. Grinning broadly, Senator Gittleson q complied. Attorney Egan, who has given every indication of an open mind at both hearings, 0 directing questions at former commission chairman Swope and incumbent chairman T Cole that were only designed to amplify s their views, concluded his own questioning g asking if Cole felt that any moral ques- t, tion was involved. Cole said, "No. I am not my brothers keeper. But I think that anything is im- Fl moral that is forbidden by law." No date has been set for later hearings i which church organizations and others n will present their views on off -track betting, pending the completion of Senator Wicks present state activities in another TI field upstate.
