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tickets on the winner of the first race, he may exercise up to three choices in the second race or obtain three tickets on one horse. No money is involved on the second opening of the totalizator, the pool consisting of the amount inyested in the purchase of tickets on the first race. The dividend is found by dividing the net amount of the pool, after the statutory deductions, by the number of tickets taken on the winner of the second leg. The principal advantage claimed for this particular method is that investors always have a starter. mas--261. Among those who gave evidence in favour of the reintroduction -of the doubles totalizator, opinion was fairly evenly divided between the two systems. It is impossible to say which would be the more popular with the public ; and clubs should, we suggest, be allowed to exercise their own choice, and change from one to the other as experience dictates. We strongly recommend, however, that the unit of investment should be ss. Any higher unit would leave a large field to be exploited by illegal bookmakers. SECTION 8. —PRE -IN VE ST MEN T ON TOTALIZATOR 262. The suggestion was made by the New Zealand Metropolitan Trotting Club that, to relieve the pressure on its totalizator immediately prior to the running of the New Zealand Trotting Cup, provision should be made enabling it to accept bets on the cup for some hours prior to the running of that race. No similar application was made by any other club, but several are doubtless similarly circumstanced. To give effect to this suggestion would involve a material alteration in the present statutory regulations governing the totalizator. The latter is allowed to be opened eight times only on each racing-day. The opening of the totalizator on the cup race prior to the normal time -would involve opening the totalizator nine times on the day on which the cup is run. If a doubles totalizator is also open on the same day, the totalizator would be open ten times. This factor would not in itself be an insuperable difficulty, for, no doubt, statutory provision could be made for it. To do so, however, seems undesirable, more particularly as the need to open the betting on the cup race does not, taken by itself, afford an adequate justification for a material alteration in the salutary rule which has been in operation for a great many years. 263. In addition to this, there are practical difficulties which cannot be overlooked. There is the danger of error in the transference of figures from the pre-investment totalizator to the electric totalizator. There is also the necessity for the installation of an indicator informing the public of the progress of the betting on the pre-investment machine, and the uncertainty and difficulty which must accrue from the fact that horses may be bracketed, scratched, or withdrawn during the course of the time that the pre-investment machine is in operation.