[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,--In my letter of
June 4th to you on the above subj I formulated four definite objections to the introduction the system. Your editorial comment fails to deal categori with any of them, and you entirely incorrectly quote wording of part of my letter.
In regard to India I said that four big meetings nearly all the racing," and I am surprised that you sho attribute to me the assertion that four big meetings abso all the racing in India "—this being precisely what I did say, as I was perfectly well aware of such minor mceti as Allahabad, Lahore, and Rawalpindi. The introdue by you of "gymkhana meetings" is quite beside the poin Entertaining and amusing as these features are, no one c regard them as serious racing. My point was that rac conditions abroad and in England are entirely differ( No one can deny that this is so.
To my main objection to the system on the ground of great expense you make no reply, nor do you answer SI objection to the wild fluctuations of odds of the Totalisa as compared with the regulated prices offered by boolanake Your accusation against this quite respectable body of p fessionals of being guilty of "errors and bias" is, so far my experience goes, entirely unjuAified.
Bookmaking is a scientific business based on mathncnlatl. data and acquired information—no question of bias," the ordinary acceptation of that word, can come in, the perpetration of " errors " is of the rarest 1)0551 occurrence.
I maintain that what the public wants is fair odds, and know whereit stands when a bet is made. What race-'° managers want is to avoid the impossible expense Of installation of Totalisators and the consequent cessation racing at most of the smaller meetings. it will be intere to see what your. readers think as to the ay.practicab' and/or the (2) desirability of Totalisators. in:England• No real light is thrown on the subject by such airy state leas as that there is a great deal for it and "practically thing against it." Reasoned arguments would be more o the purpose in dealing with what is admittedly a difficult nd complicated question.—! am, Sir, &c., MINDEN.
[We apologise to our correspondent for giving a wrong nplieation to his previous letter, but we maintain that four ig meetings do not absorb "nearly all the racing in India." VeLshers are one of the "sources of error" we had in mind. Ye stand by everything we have previously said in favour of lie Totalisator.—En. Spectator.]
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