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Latest Type Totalisator Being Installed at Omaha Newest, Fastest Mutuel Machine To Be Used at Ak-Sar-Ben Meet OMAHA, Nebr., May 5. — There is an amazing new multi-wired, intricate piece of electrical genius out at Ak-Sar-Ben Field which will do everything but mark the program and buy a bag of peanuts for race fans attending the civic organizations 35-day race meet opening Tuesday, May 19. The almost indescribable machine is the result of years of research by the American Totalisator Company, developed to its present stage of perfection and brought to Omaha to be used this summer for the first time anywhere. It is truly a mechanical brain, known in race track parlance as the "tote." The "tote," an easier way of saying totalisator, is made to tick through the smooth functioning of more than two-million feet of electrical wires, 200 thousand separate connections and about nine thousand feet of heavy cable. The public will only see that part of the installation known as the "tote board" which has been constructed in the center-field immediately in front of the grandstand. This board is four times as long as the old odds board which Ak-Sar-Ben has used for many years. For the first time at Ak-Sar-Ben, it will show how much money is wagered on every horse as well as the total money wagered on all horses in the win pool, the place pool and the show pool. Although much longer than the old odds board, the new "tote" board is considerably lower and permits a full view of the horses running up the backstretch from any part of the lawn. The maze of electrical wires which feed the information to the public on the "tote" board are carried underground from the mutuel department in the grandstand in 14 large cables, through a three-foot tube which was pushed under the race track at a depth of 14 feet in order not to disturb the racing surface. Melvin Waltz, chief installer for the American Totalisator Company, is here from Baltimore with a crew of assistants i and a host of local electricians putting every little wire in the right place and seeing to it that the intricate machinery is ready for a test "crash" a week ahead of opening day. "It sounds very complicated to the layman, but it really can be explained very simply." said Waltz. "When the patron goes to a mutuel window and purchases a ! ticket of any denomination, the seller pushes a key which releases the ticket and immediately transmits an electrical impulse to a large assemblage of wires called the distribution frame. This mechanism breaks the wager down to units of one dollar and then sorts them out to the respective pools — win, place or show. There they are recorded on the respective horses and simultaneously added up, so the total amount of the pool is known at all times. "When the impulses reach the win pool, they are immediately taken over by the latest electronic marvel, the automatic odds computer. This device automatically figures the odds to win and flashes the information to the public by way of the tote board every 60 seconds. It is the newest and fastest installation of its kind and i ! Omaha is the only city in the United States to have it." When the horses break from the starting gate and the stewards push the button which automatically locks the ticket machines, the automatic odds computer really goes to work. It functions at lightning speed in a last sudden burst of service to put onto the board the very final odds, even before the horses have gone a hundred yards. Although the "tote" people advertise that their equipment is 99.99 per cent accurate, they leave nothing to chance. Even the new electronic genius is checked by mere humans to see that it behaves. To accomplish this, observers are mounted in a special housing on the roof of the grandstand with adding machines and rapid calculating equipment. Each figure flashed onto the "tote" board is immediately checked to guard against mistakes. James P. Lee, chairman of Ak-Sar-Bens racing committee, said the installation of the new "tote" will make the Omaha tracks modern operation and efficiency second to none in the nation. "We have had our bid in for this type of equipment for three years and are very happy that our patience has been rewarded with this latest and finest tote installations." said Mr. Lee.
