Pari Mutuel in America the development of Oiler's primitive pari mutuel followed more closely the original idea. Instead of there being one large machine for recording bets there are several small ones. The registration of the bets is effected by means of hand levers, operated by a man known as the clicker. While betting on the race is in progress each machine is worked as a separate unit, but when the race is started and betting ceases the totals recorded at each machine are passed on to a central office where the grand aggregates are ascertained. This process may be a trifle slower than that of the modern tote, but the trained calculators are, nevertheless, able to declare the dividends payable with astonishing celerity. The American and Canadian machines, costing little more than L ioo ($500) each, mark a tremendous advance on the antiquated method by which the pari mutuel is still operated in France.
It was not until 1908 that the pari mutuel system of betting was methodically exploited in the United States. In the spring of that year it was adopted in Kentucky. The innovation proved very unpopular. Attendance at race meetings became so small that the executives had to reduce the stakes they offered. Two years later, however, a complete change had taken place. It was then declared that the pari mutuel was "doing more to fortify the sport, safeguard and re-establish it, than all other agencies and influences combined." Subsequently the pari mutuel was adopted in Canada and Maryland, and eventually it came to be used on practically all American racecourses except those in the State of New York, where anti-betting laws are still in force, to be circumvented only by what is called "oral" betting with the aid of bookmakers. The amazing progress racing has
made in the United States of late years is largely the result of the pari mutuel and the 5 or 6% levy on turnover permitted by the laws of the several States concerned. In return for this con cession the racecourses pay the State exchequer a daily licence fee of from L ,000 to f 1,500 ($5,0oo to $7,500). This arrangement also obtains in Canada, where a Government inquiry held after the World War resulted in a report that the pari mutuel form of betting was the one calculated to benefit racing most and do the least harm to the community at large.