The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1935-04-15
By Joe Williams
New York Keeps BOOkmakers
Report of Slush Fund Heard
State Losing Race Revenue

NEW YORK, April 15-The bill to legalize machine bet
ting at the New York tracks has been defeated and the
bookmakers with all that they symbolic will continue to
dominate the ring for the next several years at least.
1t seems to me the first thing that should be done is
to have Gov. Lehman instigate an investigation into the
widely reported rumor that the bookmakers accumulated a
huge sum Of money to lobby against the bill, the passage of
which obviously would put them out of business.
There have been o5en admissions that such a fund was started and
such a fund is dsproved the natural disposition will be to look upon
the defeat of the bill with certain suspicious.
THE result is that New York, the nations leading racing center, must
l. 90 along with an outmoded, archaic system of betting that is both
unsatisfactory to the customer as a means of betting and unsatisfactory
What's more. the present system of betting. as pointed ut by sena-
item Of increased revenue. this was another reason why the bill should
The about-face tactics of Senator's TwOmey and Crawford. enthusi-
asac crusaders for the machines a year ago; $ml remains agst unf thp bnec
offer something less than a powerful argument.
TT begins to be apparent that practically nobody wanted the machines
L but the customers Naturally the bOokmakeTs didn't want them be,
from $4,000 to $4,000 a day from the bookmakers for gambling privileges
seemed more than than co content t%a to ri ride along bor5nse An m h N m ne gamO t6ey a ae i1
effect betting against themselves. That is to say the more they bet
one Of the evils Of horse racing per s. is the the big gambler tsaD6E IT is IS
he is always in on it. and very frequently it is a fix of I his own n. creation u
# # i he belongs eSm% at pa ALL "" I'll " 'N' WIN
90 the defeat of the bill is a multiple defeat. 1t defeats the states am
y btdon to collect dollars instead Of dimes for revenue Sams a%d defeats fna1v NE Tf
0s'G If the state is to permit the tracks to sell betting privileges it seems
to me only fair that the state should get a very large part OF the s"ag'
In the DAYS of oral betting there were just a IS many bookmakers at n
tracks and thew paid nothing for their positions. The only difference
now is they pay for a privilege made possible by a legislative dSpenSa-
ton. Why then should the tracks get all this money?
CERTAINLY it is ridiculous that New York tracks with l78 racing days
K should paw only 1924 8z5 to the state when the New Hampshire tracks
with onIy rs racing days. paid $68OO48. With these figures at hand it
seems pertinent to ask whether the Legislature had the prosperity Oh
the tracks in mind n the condition of the state treasury when it hber-
allied the betting laws a year ago
More than 81 100000 was paid to the tracks by bookmakers last year
for their positions in the betting ring. out of this the state got only
the tax imnosed on admission tickets, the system being to sell the DOCK
major about S0 worth of tickets each cay. l JnnK at edSG ndl VI
this 81 600 600 should have gone to the state.