Evening star., 1934-06-05
Rate by Mail-Payable in Advance.
The Race Track Bill.

A bill is pending in the Senate Dis
trict Committee, having already passed
the House of Representatives, to IL
cense race tracks in the District Of
Columbia and to provide for their reg
ulation. 1t is favored by certain OF
the local organizations of business
men and citizens, and opposed by
others. The District Commissioners
have expressed their disapproval of it.
A report on the measure is expected
from the committee shortly, to what
effect cannot be foretold.
Twenty-Five years ago horse racing
was abolished in the District. That
action was the consequence of
strong arousal of public feeling against
this form of legalized gambling,
veritable national crusade against 1t
having been stimulated by the dis
closure of evils associated with and
directly flowing from this so-called
sport, which was maintained primar-
lily for the purpose of affording oppor-
tunities for gambling on the races,
taking an enormous toll of money
from the public pockets and diverting
it from legitimate business.
Since that time the horSe-racing
~ Inr
stricter regulation, and in some of the
States it is now maintained on the
basis of State-controlled systems of
betting, with the community sharing
IN the sums Wagered at the tracks.
That is the basis of the proposed es-
tablishment of tracks in the District.
the local government receiving a per-
centage of the proceeds Of the public
investments" at the tracks A large
sum of money, it is expected, would
flow to the District treasury if this
measure should be enacted and a race
track should be licensed, perhaps more
than one.
The temptation to accede to the
proposal on the score of possible pub
lie revenue does not greatly move the
community, though the argument is
advanced that the institution of a
race track would make for a stimula-
ton of business, for the immediate
giving of work to a number of now
idle persons and for the drawing of
crowds to this city once or twice a
year. Against that argument stands
the fact that by the licensing of race
tracks the Government indorSeS a
form Of gambling that diverts great
sums from legitimate needs, flowing
into the pockets of professional oper-
ators.
There is no ground for the claim
that to legitimatize race tracks in the
District would be in encouragement of
a genuine sport, maintained solely for
the sake of the sport itself. The race
track, it is claimed and generally con-
ceded, cannot exist without the accom-
paniment of a betting system. The
horses are not run primarily for the
purses offered. Were all betting for
hidden, in any form, there would be
no races, it is claimed, to which the
public would go in large numbers.
Nothing has occurred in the course
of the quarter century that has passed
since the race tracks were abolished
In the District to make them more ac-
ceptable as feature of the local sys-
TEN of public entertainment. Not even
the device Of the so-called pari-mu-
tuel system of betting, which merely
substitutes a mathematical arrange
ment for the former method of laying
odds, can change the fact that the race
is simply the medium of a great over
turn of funds, mainly for the benefit
Of professional gamblers
There is no pronounced public de-
mand for this legislation. On the
contrary, there is strong opposition to
1t, from an important and worthy
element of the community. The hope
Of that factor of public sentiment is
that the bill will not pass.