Sport: For Relief

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Long before the Civil War there was horse racing in New Jersey. In the 1880s Jersey's Monmouth Park, with its imported British bookmaking system as well as new-fangled pari-mutuel betting machines, was the rendezvous for New York's fashionable "400." But the citizens of New Jersey in 1897 decided that gambling was a menace, outlawed it, killed racing.

Last week a new generation of Jersey voters, following in the footsteps of 21 other U. S. States which have recently grasped at gambling as a source of revenue, decided to revive horse racing, voted to legalize pari-mutuel betting in their State. Taxes on the pari-mutuel take at four proposed tracks (probable sites: Camden, Atlantic City, Asbury Park and a spot near the Jersey end of the George Washington Bridge, just across the river from New York City) will add $5,000,000 a year for State Relief, avert a threatened State income tax (which Jerseyites have so far escaped) and put 6,000 men to work. At least that is what the politicians promised the voters.

While New York race-track owners were moaning over the idea of local competition and turf men from coast to coast were frowning on the current overexpansion of the horse-racing business (there will be over 60 supposedly Grade A tracks in the U. S. next year), California went a step further in using horse racing to balance a budget. To Governor Olson, the State Legislature last week sent a bill legalizing (and supervising) poolroom bookmaking and other away-from-the-track horse-race betting. Taxation on California's handbook betting (which is not limited to California tracks) will net the State $20,000,000 a year, its proponents say, in addition to the $2,500,000 the State now receives from pari-mutuel wagering at its five tracks.