96

SECTION 6.—PAYMENT OF DIVIDENDS ON INQUIRIES OR APPEALS 254. It may be inconvenient, if not impracticable, to suspend the disbursement of dividends for any protracted period. It is not therefore recommended that disbursement should be postponed until all appeals have been exhausted. It is, however, recommended that no dividend should be disbursed until the conclusion of any inquiry held by the judicial committee of the club responsible for the conduct of the meeting if the result of that inquiry might affect the placing of any horse. 255. Even so, some further limitation in point of time is necessary, for inquiries are, upon occasion, adjourned over somewhat lengthy periods. The conclusion of the particular race meeting in the course of which the incidents happened or the questions arose which gave rise to the inquiry seems to provide a satisfactory termination date to the suspension of payment, and we recommend that disbursement should not be delayed beyond the conclusion of any meeting. It will be well known to investors that the disbursement of the moneys invested on the totalizator are dependent upon the result of a reasonably prompt conclusion to the first inquiry instituted on the day of the race, and they will be left with no ground of complaint if, as may in some instances happen, the initial result is subsequently varied on appeal. Legal recognition of an analogous conception is afforded by the judgment of the Supreme Court in Brickman v. Chalmers, [1945] G.L.R. 19, where it is said: — All persons who take advantage of the opportunities provided for racing horses and winning prizes thereat know what are the terms and conditions laid down in the rules of racing, and by entering and taking advantage of those opportunities they elect to be bound by all such rules. To those who invest upon the totalizator must be attributed a measure of knowledge similar to that held in the same relation by the owners of horses. SECTION 7.—THE DOUBLES TOTALIZATOR 256. Involved with and inseparable from the question of illegal betting is the question of the reintroduction of the doubles totalizator. We are satisfied from the evidence that doubles betting represents a very considerable part, if not the major part, of the business of most bookmakers. We recommend, therefore, that licences should be issued for the establishment of a doubles totalizator at all meetings at which the totalizator is operated and that doubles betting through the medium of the totalizator off-course system should be made available to all who desire to bet in that way.