El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1915-02-25
ARI-NUTUEL
MACHINE MADE
Bookmakers and Sheet Wri-
ters Are Eliminated by
French Invention.

Recurring reference to "pari-mutUel"
betting in connection with horse rae
ing legislation recently passed, or now
before legislatures of Texas, Arizona
and various other states, has resulted
in several requests for description of
this system.
Pari-mutuel betting first came into
general use in France and the system
there has been under the direct super
vision of the government, which takes
a percentage of all bets made, as is
proposed in Texas. Eight or ten years
ago a track in Kentucky gave the sys-
TEN its first trial in America Other
tracks have since adopted the parl-
mutuel machines and have done away
with the bookmakers. Down i'm Havana,
where there has been winter racing for
the past few years, they have both the
machines and the bOOkmakers, but the
machine is to rule supreme next winter
according to recent dispatches from
Cuba
Canada Association Uses Them.
The Western Canada Fair and Rae
ing association was the first racing cir
cult to really take up the machines on
this continent. They have had the ma
chimes on all but two tracks for the
past three years and, II able to get
more machines this season, will have
them installed on all their tracks. The
machines are also to be used on all but
three tracks on the big eastern circuit,
embracing WOOdbine, Fort Erie, Hamil-
ton, Windsor and such tracks, during
the coming season.
Several of the harness circuits have
also taken up the machines and they
are in use in several cities in the mid
die west where the trOtters and PAGERS
hold forth.
Recent legislation in the west will
introduce the pari-mutuel machines
throughout this part of the country.
Proceeds Are Pooled.
Avoiding any technical description, 1t
may be said that the pari-mutuel is
operated on the system of selling tick
cts of given denomination; pooling
the proceeds and paying the winners
equally according to the number Of
tickets issued, after deducting a small
percentage for expenses.
On most of the small tracks tickets
are sold in denominations of 81, 50 and
So. Any person can buy as many tick
cts as he may desire. Each ticket Is
sold for a certain horse. Let us as
sumo that $50 81 tickets. IS 50 tickets
and rs IS tickets are sold Ito win" in
a certain race and that 20 of these tick
cts are issued on the horse which wins.
The win" pool would thus be s425. The
expense" deduction is usually 10 per-
cent. This would leave $3S2.50 in the
pool to be divided among the 20 holders
of lucky tickets, or, in other words,
each winning ticket would pay $500
for 81.
For place" the total amount Of the
place llthtlS IS DOOIEu hIu QlNluGu
among the holders Of tickets on the
horses which finished first and second,
the money being first evenly split and
then again divided according to the
tickets sold. The same method is fol-
lowed with the show tickets.
No sheet Writers.
There are no sheet writer's neces-
sary under the mutuel system. A big
board shows the names of the horses
entered for the race. a ticket is sold
on certain horse; the operator pulls a
lever opposite that horses name and
the figure shows opposite the number
of tickets that have been sold on that
horse. There are no odds" and the
only way that the 'lOngshOt fiend" can
pick his horse is to select the one on
which the least number OF tickets has
been sold.
It has frequently happened that 90
percent OF the tickets on a certain
race have been on a winning favor
lite. In that case 1t is nothing Un-
usual for a man making a wager to
get back less for his ticket than he
originally paid for it. as the amount
paid in on losing tickets would be In
sufficient to pay the 10 percent "ex-
pense."
I to 80 odds Not UnuEuaI.
In the same way. it has happened
that the place" ticket on a winning
horse has paid better than the win
ticket The odds are so low, when a
hot favOrite wins, that no one would be
tempted to bet were those same odds
posted on a boOkmaker's slate. Il
takes a real redhot gambler to 20 up
against a 1 to so proposition and that
is not uncommon under the pari-mU-
tuel system
The great argument used in favot
of the mutuels is that the public makes
its own odds. Rightly or wrongly,
bookmakers have been blamed since
betting on horse racing became closely
affiliated, for queer races. It has
often been charged that a jockey was
fixed" to lose with a heavily backed
favorite or that a horse was doctored