Los Angeles herald., 1909-02-14
RACING TO END
LATE IN APRIL
GOVERNOR WILL APPROVE
BILL MONDAY
ALLOWS SIXTY DAYS BEFORE 1T
is EFFECTIVE
General Opinion Is That Sport Will Be
Continued and That Test in Courts
viii Be Made-Bookmaking,
However, Is Doomed
BY JAY DAVIDSON

dIIll-IdCl1lR Uill, OOL PAOOebOAy WA w
so Monday, according to advices re-
ceived last night, and it will go into
effect sixty DAYS thereafter, or at about
midnight of April Is. Then until the
law is repealed or set aside in the
courts the sport of kings rests under
handicap in this state that may wind
it up for good and all time. Notwlth-'
standing this apparent hopeless s1tua-
ton it is remarkably strange how IN
different are all those connected with
the promotion of the sport and how
calmly confident they seem to be as
regards the future of racing in Cali
fornia However, there will be sixty
days left after the bill is signed in
which to wind up the season at the
California tracks, which means about
ffty-two days of racing yet to come.
Despite the gloomy outlook at TINS
time predictions are being made in all
confidence that Santa Anita and EN-
eryville will open their gates for an
other extended season of racing next
winter, and this prediction seems to
bear out the general belief that there
is a ''joker'' in the bill that will be
sufficient to undo all that has been
done by the opponents Of racing at
this session of the legislature.
The average patron of racing holds
to the opinion that this "joker'' really
exists. He argues that the racing folk
made very tame fight against the
bill and uses this argument to support
the theory that the anti-racing bill
contains a "joker' and that the racing
folk permitted it to be railroaded
through the legislature without oppo-
sition in the belief that when the legis-
lature adjourns a test case will show
up the Joker and result in the bill
being declared null and void. This
would assure two years more of rae
ing.
There is another theory advanced by
those who hold the pessimiStic view of
all things. It is argued by this ele-
ment that the racing interests foresaw
the defeat of the sport in California
and refused to make a strong fight
nothing but a new racing plant for
Tia Juana and the cooperation of the
California interests in the plans to
build plant at the City of Mexico.
The same view of the situation, it
seems, would lead one to believe that
racing will be continued in California
without regard to the Walker-Otis
law This would mean that while the
fight against the bill is being conduct
ed in the courts racing would be con-
Quoted here just as it was conducted
in New York after the Hughes bill went
into effect. That is, bookmaking would
not be permitted, but bookmakers
would SUaTQ arOunQ ana accept WdS6TSs
making no registration of the bet and
conducting the business on a basis
of mutual honor between the player
and layer.
That there will be racing next winter
at Santa Anita is generally understood.
If the bill is knocked out in the courts
bookmaking will be conducted as now.
If the bill is upheld, individual wagers
may be permitted, just as the courts
in Now Work. state have 0PoFpp6 NAV
be done. At any rate, it is expected
that racing will survive and that a
meeting will be held next winter that
will be as extensive in dates as the
one now in progress.
The foes of racing have triumphed.
temporarily, at least, just as they al
ways have done wherever a fight was
made Racing has not been attacked,
except indirectly, but bookmaking has
| been outlawed, and without bookmak-
| ing, it seems, the public will not lend
| that support to racing that the big
purses require to keep the game going.
But, had the racing folk read the signs
| last summer when this subject was
] fully discussed in these columns, and
had profited by the warnings given
! then-that the sport would not survive
another legislature unless bookmaking
was cut Out-there would be no anti
racing bill on the statute today.
When the anti-racing bill became d
| law in New York, where money without
limit and political influence in the same
! degree were available in support of the
sport. those who know anything at all
realized that the same fate awaited
! the sport in California just as long as
| it was handicapped and burdened with
| the bookmaking feature. This fact was
| pointed out several times during the
summer and used as an argument in
1 IL
mutuel system of speculating upon the
races.
Bookmaking is all wrong. Odds are
| quoted by the pricemakerS, and these
odds falsify form. Prices are made in
most instances according to the prob
ability of heavy play by the owner
of any horse that appears to have a
| chance of winning. Form, in a certain
! degree, is disregarded by the price
makers and the price almost invari-
ably changes the opinion of the bettor
unless he be plunger. The average
bettor wagers as much on the price
! as he does on the form of the race, his
mind being perverted by the price. This
is only one argument against book
making
Bookmakers come from the east in
winter and put up their stands here
to rake in what coin is in sight, and
they take what they can get and go
back east to spend it, thus taking the
| money out of circulation here. Book
makers as rule have little or nothing
to do with the formful or unformfuI
running of horses. They do not have
to resort to crookedness to win from
| the public because the percentage is
| greatly in their favor. Bookmakers
i as a rule are men of integrity and
| they go about their business in a busi-
nesslike manner. employing checkers
that the public fails to do employing
men to keep close tab on the horses
and furnish accurate information down
to the minute regarding the chances of
| each horse that a price is laid against
in the betting and thereby enabling the
bookmaker to gain information that
| the public cannot obtain. That the
public must lose to the bookmaker is
| a natural result of an amateur meet
| ing a professional.
The operation of the machines, on
the other hand, keeps the money wag-
cred ON the horses in local circulation
during and after each meeting The
machines withhold per cent of the
money wagered as the shareholders
fee. The remaining 50 per cent is paid
back into the public pocket after each
race. If 1 lose. my neighbor wins, and
vice versa. All the money played on
the horses that finish behind the win
ner is pooled and apportioned among
/ The hackers of the winner.
No odds are quoted, no such thing
as favOrites exist and the bettor must
play his judgment. based on form, and
| horses VIII run more formfully when
| an owner can win as much with a
small wager as he could win with a