By Cliff Williams, ContributorTHE RECENT visit of Terry Ellis, director of operations at Satellite Information Services (SIS) the broadcaster of racing from the British Isles to the Caribbean and elsewhere in the world, has sparked a new round of debate on the thorny issue of opening hours of local bookmaking establishments.
In keeping pace with technological advancement Mr. Ellis' visit to subscribers in the West Indies was to provide information on the latest development, which should see a better defined signal coming directly to local subscribers from state-of-the-art transmission equipment in London, England.
December 1, 2003 will mark the start of service that will no longer be received second hand through the Philadelphia Hub, and at no additional cost will be far more efficient and reliable than we have been accustomed to in the past.
Racing in the British Isles will enjoy an expanded calendar starting in 2004 with about 500 more races in about 70 additional meets at different tracks.
This is just another example of how the rest of the world is progressing in the conduct of racing industries whilst Jamaica stagnates. The bizarre local tax regime that is a disincentive to expansion of sales turnover and the concept of returning higher dividends to stimulate increased betting volumes seems to have been rejected outright by the Government.
Getting back to this new round of opening hours debate, I am a little surprised that the issue remains as it is since the restriction on opening hours is in conflict with certain clauses in the Fair Trading Act. In fact the regulatory body for fair trading did take the point made by the bookmakers that their industry was offering a different product from the promoters of live racing.
The principals of the bookmaking industry have always maintained that one of the ways to address the problem of illegal wagering through piracy is to allow the over six hundred licensed betting offices islandwide to remain open for business during the conduct of live racing from Caymanas.
The problem though is that whilst it would indeed offer an alternative to the punters in terms of race by race betting, such operations would compete directly with the promoting company's network of off track betting stations.
When it is taken into account that these off track parlours are responsible for seventy per cent of the sales of the promoting company, then careful consideration would have to be given as to what would be adequate compensation for the bookmakers' use of the programmes, results and dividends.
It would seem to me that the bookmaking industry cannot insist that it can operate on a parallel basis with the race track operators unless it is prepared offer adequate compensation, even though the idea is to reduce the flow of business to the flourishing illegal bet-takers. There is a case however, based on fair trading, where the bookmakers will have to be allowed to conduct business on races held outside of Jamaica without restrictions on their opening hours.
The idea of a Tote Monopoly has seemingly gained new currency with Jamaica Racehorse Trainers Association president Lee Clark using the opportunity to make a fresh call for its implementation.
Donovan Chin-See, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the promoting company has also added weight to the suggestion by proposing that the bookmakers could become agents of the Tote or could even get into the business odds creation thus offering a really different product. There will come a point when a policy has to emerge and these matters will have to be settled, so this column will continue to deal with the issues going forward.
