TOTALIZATOR. Betting on horse races, without the aid of bookmakers as intermediaries, is conducted by two methods, known as the totalizator (or tote) and the pari mutuel systems. In principle they are alike. Money staked by backers is pooled, and, when the result of a race is known, shared by those who have backed the winner. But whereas all bets made through a totali zator are at once automatically massed in a single pool, those made through a pari mutuel are in the first instance formed into a series of separate pools, only, however, finally to be amalgamated. The totalizator, when efficiently equipped and worked, is the more expeditious instrument, but it is also the more costly to install. The totalizator building and machinery at Randwich racecourse, Sydney, cost about L80,000. An outfit of a similar character at Longchamp, Paris, used for the first time in March, 1928, entailed an even bigger outlay ; but, whereas the Randwich machine deals with only one pool, that at Longchamp provides for two separate pools—one for straight-out, or win, bets, and the other for place bets. Owing to the high cost of installing a totalizator capable of handling a large number of bets it has been the general practice to fit it with machinery for dealing with one pool only. The major portion of such pools, say 6o or 75%, is divided among the backers of the winner and the remainder among backers of the second and third horses. In Australia and New Zealand, where the tote orig inated, this method of distributing the pool has been accepted as fair and satisfactory. In other parts of the world it has not been approved. In the United Kingdom, in France and other conti nental countries, and in the Americas, speculators demand the opportunity of backing a horse to win only; if they also wish to back it to secure a place that must be another transaction. Hence the widespread popularity of the pari mutuel system which, at a comparatively low cost, gives facilities for both win and place betting, with independent pools.
conducted in opposition to bookmakers, but eventually it was adopted by the controllers of racing in France, who realized the possibility of obtaining revenue by appropriating a small per centage of the turnover. Then the French Government came in, imposed regulations, banished bookmakers, and, while allowing the turf authorities to work the pari mutuel, received a percentage of the turnover in return for the concession. The money handed over to the Government was, and has continued to be, devoted to the furtherance of horse breeding, the provision of drinking water in rural districts, and to other beneficent objects. Eleven per cent of the turnover is, in France, deducted before the pools are distributed among the holders of winning tickets. Four-elevenths of this rake-off is retained by the turf authorities who, after meeting the cost of working the pari mutuel, disburse the balance by increasing racecourse amenities for the benefit of the public, paying premiums to breeders of winning horses, enhancing the value of racing stakes, and generally improving the equipment and tone of the French turf. In 1927 the pari mutuel turnover at the racecourses near Paris, together with those at Deauville and Caen, amounted to 1,425,256,462 francs.
Origin of the Totalizator.—The application of mechanism to the mutuel system of betting dates from 1880. That year a man in New Zealand named Ekberg, who had studied 011er's procedure, conceived the idea of automatically recording bets. He devised a machine for the purpose, called it a totalizator, and used it for the first time at the Canterbury Jockey Club's meeting at Christchurch, N.Z., in 1880. Before many years had elapsed the tote, which had undergone considerable improvement, drove bookmakers off the New Zealand racecourses, obtained a footing in Australia, India and other eastern countries, and now has reached Europe. The efficiency of the modern electrically-worked totalizator excites admiration and wonderment.