Betting
There are four main avenues for race betting in Australia. Licensed on-track bookmakers offer fixed-odds betting, mostly on wins and places. Off-track betting was traditionally controlled by the various state government through organisation called "Totalisator Agency Boards" (TAB), which offered mainly parimutuel betting - that is, the odds were not fixed but involved "the house" taking a fixed cut and distributing the remainder amongst people who made a winning bet. Many of these "TABs" have now been privatised, and many pubs now offer betting services linked to the privatised offshoots of the companies. In some parts of Australia there was a tradition of illegal off-course bookmaking, known as SP bookmaking historically involving significant turnover, though it is unclear whether this is still the case. Finally, there is online person to person exchange betting, where members set their own prices and pay a percentage of their winnings in commission.
In 1913 one of the major developments in race wagering, the automatic totalisator, which allowed the automatic calculation of race odds given betting patterns, was invented in Australia by George Julius (later Sir).
Read more about this topic: Thoroughbred Racing In Australia
Famous quotes containing the word betting:
“Courtroom—A place where Jesus Christ and Judas Iscariot would be equals, with the betting odds in favor of Judas.”
—H.L. (Henry Lewis)
“All voting is a sort of gaming, like checkers or backgammon, with a slight moral tinge to it, a playing with right and wrong, with moral questions; and betting naturally accompanies it. The character of the voters is not staked. I cast my vote, perchance, as I think right; but I am not vitally concerned that right should prevail. I am willing to leave it to the majority.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“What is faith but a kind of betting or speculation after all? It should be, “I bet that my Redeemer liveth.””
—Samuel Butler (1835–1902)