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Sees 46,000,000 State Off -Track Betting Income Swope, Ex-Board Head, States Mutuel Take Could Be Reduced NEW YORK, N. Y., Aug. 17. Annual revenue of approximately 46,000,000 to New York state from horse racing, if off-track betting should be legalized, was en-visionedby Herbert Bayard Swope, former chairman of the New York State Racing Commission, in a television broadcast Sunday. Swope appeared on CBS-TV documentary program, "Eye on New York," along with Bob Cooke, sports editor- of the New York Herald-Tribune, and Dr. Norris L. Tibbetts, pastor of Riverside Church. Bob "Bill" Leonard was Ce moderator. An advocate of off-track betting for a number of years, Swope favored a system of booths, or kiosks, located at advantageous points in the city and throughout the state and connected with the tracks by wires. He said the amount of "take out" from totalisator pools by track and state would be determined by trial and error, but believed the total "take" could be reduced and that the state and track should receive aneven split. Dr. Tibbetts opposed off-track betting on moral grounds, holding that gambling was motivated simply by a desire to "get something for nothing," giving the Biblical quotation, "Do unto others, etc ". . ." and pointing out that to gain something for nothing meant depriving someone else. Swope repeatedly objected to Dr. Tibbetts use of the word "gambling," preferring the term "betting" when the risk is legalized. Answering Dr. Tibbetts question as to why so many leaders in racing opposed off-track betting, Swope declared that the same group opposing it had opposed introduction of pari-mutuels. He said that race tracks and officials were afraid of the "bigness" of the sport, but declared there was no justification for worry about bigness, assuring that racing could be both big and good. Drs Tibbetts said he opposed betting both at the track and away and declared that as long as the state does not legalize off-track betting it indicates that betting has dangers and should be limited to tracks. He declared that the state could not afford to approve off-track betting and invite many new converts to bet. I Cooke agreed with Dr. Tibbetts that state-wide wagering would make too many converts and hinted of lines of housewives queued at betting kiosks. Cooke also believed that off -track betting would make bookmakers thrive; that they could quote and pay morning prices which would in many cases be preferred by the bettor to unpredictable track odds. Swope refuted this by saying few "bookies" would pay high track odds, usually limiting pay-offs to 20 to 1. He also cited that once pari- Continued on Page Forty-Eight Sees 46,000,000 State Off-Track Betting Income Swope, Ex-Board Head, States Mutuel Take Could Be Reduced Continued from Page Fire mutuels had been used to eliminate booking. Today in a clarification of his estimate of 46,000,000 annual revenue to the state from horse racing, if of f -track betting were legalized, Swope explained it thusly: Estimates of a number of authorities on wagering place off-track betting now at 5 to 10 times the amount bet at the track, which is now about 08,000,000 a year in the state. Cutting the betting ratio down to 3 to 1 and legalizing the bets away from the track, the total bet in the state would be approximately ,800,000,000 and yield a revenue to the state of almost 46,000,000.
