[AusRace] Lew and Marie - a progressive bookmaking firm, part 1

[Tony Moffat]

1 - A SHIMMY IN THE RING++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Lew was a bookmaker, businessman and my boss for a while before he
moved to Melbourne. I got asked to work for him there too.
We went to 3 or 4 meetings each week, invariably in the early
afternoon and occasionally an evening meeting finishing at 7.00pm.
There was Lew, the boss, Marie, his boss, Punchy and me and another
who was the runner and info getter. The meetings were always well
attended and may have been an important part of the social fabric of
the district. There were a lot of horse numbers, every second person
was a trainer of his own horses and an expert. The work was probably
profitable and pleasant while the sun shone. 
I was the designated driver, Punchy was in the front, Lew was asleep
in the back, always, and Marie knitted. We left the course within 50
minutes of the last race, the car had been refuelled on the way there,
and home we went.
Then when we were driving and got close to home Lew would leave the
car and jog home in an obscure League Guernsey from Illabo or Marrar
or The Reefs or along the rail track from Wagga. Meanwhile, I/we would
drive into town and bank the bag money in the night deposit box on
week nights or in the service station floor safe, fuel the car, drive
to his farm and wait for him there. Then take his car (or my bike)
back into town with his clothes and shoes for next day and switch off
the lights (it was a country town after all).
Lew had a collection of perhaps 50 League jumpers from major, minor
and obscure Clubs around Australia, and about 12-15 mannequins to wear
them, scary things they were in lines in the shearing shed on their
farm. So bright coloured jumpers on display on mannequins which were
nude from the waist, funny. He had never played Rugby League but liked
the commercial, business aspect to it. He went to rugby union playing
schools in south island in New Zealand, worked in the timber
purchasing trade there and came to Australia to do the same. He had an
open shed on the farm, a big hay shed style, with timber drying and
stacked in it. It was bound down in bundles with wire surcingles, to
stop it twisting he said, and he moved it around with an ancient
forklift occasionally. It may have been that he made some money early
from timber and that his superannuation was in that shed. The timber
was sold and forms the floor and walls of a business premises and an
embassy in Canberra. Although Marie would have kept her Zebra wood and
her cedar from Queensland, untreated but so shiny you could use it as
a mirror and from a fallen tree probably more than a thousand years
old. Wasps were encouraged or were introduced to live in the shed as
they controlled and ate the wood bugs, termite's maybe, ants and
birds. 
In the morning Lew would jog into town with Marie, his wife, and she
would go to Church (yes, in her trackies) and he would have a swim if
possible otherwise do a weight circuit at the Police Boys Club then
walk over the road to the service station/motel, have a shower, get
dressed, and expect us to have behaved similarly. I think not. 
 Marie went home in the car to feed and comb her 'boys' , Shetland
bred horses - 'bad boys' with 'tude who hated each other and
everybody, except Marie. She named them after some Apostles and Popes.
Then, within an hour she would return and start work herself.
He worked the Riverina circuit centred on trotting at Junee. There
were up to  4 meetings a week and we went to two or three of these and
always to the Cups and Specials that each Club had on their annual
calendar. Lew sponsored the offices of 5 clubs, essentially paying for
their stationery, phone, and postage. It was about $50 a meeting for
each club and this sponsorship went largely unnoticed by most. The
cheque and receipt went through his business account.
He was not the biggest bookie around, a Wagga Wagga group claimed that
title, nor was he a quotation buster however he priced all runners
himself and his prices were independent to other fielders.
Lew was an opinion bookmaker, never laid off (except through the on
course Tote) although he accepted all cash bets from other fielders,
would not give credit to anyone including his relatives, studied the
form guide until 0400 then ran and swam and slept in the car on the
way to the course and was more often asleep before we drove away from
the course. 
At   a trot meeting, before my time, Lew had accepted bets from
brothers on their horse which won. His price quote was longer than the
ruling quote. They got a better price with us. It's just business,
and the favourite, a 5 time district cup winner was all class but lost
because of a malfunction of its gear and its driver. It lost by half a
length after a gallop in the back straight. The brothers demanded a
steward inquiry because of the price of their horse, which won and
should have been favourite by weight of money. 
 Did the bookmaking fraternity have knowledge of the race result?
Specifically, when some had their horse as favourite we did not, it
happens a lot but the brothers believed themselves and nobody else.
The stewards said no then, and no at a subsequent HQ hearing, and the
brothers were warned about their behaviour on course, and before the
stewards on both occasions. Lew did not attend the meetings nor was he
summonsed to do so. An official came and inspected the books, by
invitation, and I took him through the race, bet by bet. The driver of
the favourite apologised for the drive and believed he was the winner
but for a decision to pull wide in the gallop incident when half the
field went through underneath and then he got going again and lost by
the margin mentioned. This horse won a few on the trot in better class
races when transferred to Newcastle.
In later races elsewhere, the brothers horse failed as favourite, then
won as favourite when the 6 leaders tangled and failed at a meeting
not attended by us. Two of the brothers had been removed from the
course by Police at the last meeting. The dislike by the brothers of
Lew and Marie business festered for a couple of years, most thought
the brothers were moneyed dunces.
There were dramas of varying proportion every race day. Somebody had
bet the wrong horse (Gala Supreme instead of Gala Red type of thing),
or the ticket price was different than the board price and they
couldn't work out why(Lew wrote 20/100 for a 4/1 runner and often did
not shorten his odds during the bet up time and may lengthen the
price, so 4/1 might be 7/1 in 46 seconds time, and essentially, he
wrote on the ticket what was  called for the book, as an example I
would call 'Pugsley ,100 to 20 and I would go into a spiel if the
return warranted it, it was about a $400 cash limit payment and the
balance with a cheque, this was printed on the back of the ticket too)
he would repeat what I had called and add the number printed on the
ticket, say 22 and back would come the reply 22 two two, thank you he
would say and the cardboard ticket would change hands and I would say
thank you and reach for the next bet. Or he would go to the fractions,
recall or re state the bet and all the punter heard or understood
would be the horse name then his ticket value would be different than
expected (more return for his betting dollars) We wrote out until
there was nobody in the queue and perhaps the runners were in the back
straight for the last time, and obviously after the start of the race.

Back to the brothers and their horse. After I started work with Lew,
the horse was entered for a race meeting which we worked. The brothers
other horse had won an earlier/previous race as favourite in a good
display. In the race for the subject horse Lew took 3 bets at 4/1 from
the brothers and did not touch his board. He then accepted a much
larger bet on the same horse from a separate group. Again he did not
touch his board. Lew said to the ring 'I'll take all bets at 4's on
the local'(the subject horse). This was marginally longer than the
general quote. The on course Tote had closed. There was a queue
forming and I reckon we took most of the intended bet dollars. The
horse was 9 years old, had been up for 43 runs, was in a race 270
yards longer than its winning band, had erratic form when driven for
early speed and had one of the brothers as driver, his 3rd open class
drive.
Also, another runner in this race was the Newcastle horse who had run
an unlucky 2nd when they last met. The driver was the State best for
three years running and he and some others had been invited for the
meeting. 
While the subject horse was being inundated in bets, Lew was winding
out other runners looking for takers. We got them too.
The race started and the subject horse led, by a lot, until leaving
the straight for the second time, when it was caught and passed by the
eventual winner and 5 others. The Newcastle horse ran 3rd.
We wrote three bets on the winner, one from Kevin on the stand to our
right and one from the owner/driver family, their only bet they said
and a late third bet from a  long - time client who backed a few as
well. Owners usually got a point more, on the quiet, for cash. The
winner had been assessed at 9/1 and was written at 9. There were
sizable bets on other runners at shorter prices. It was a winning race
for us and the busiest I had experienced to that point. The boss said
thanks afterwards. Marie was coding/checking the sheets after the last
and also commented that she had not seen that much activity ever. The
Tote price of the subject horse was better than our quote, the winner
price was worse and the Newcastle horse was tote fav.
Marie, and others, was able to get on course Tote prices after the
Tote closed (10 minutes on course, an hour off course)
The brothers spoke with Lew and there was peace for a while. They had
not backed their first, earlier, winner with us and did not have
further bets with us at later meetings. Three of the brothers (there
were 7 - must been hell at bath time) were trotting club committee
men.
The next day I was due to be the collector on the gate at the local
trotting meeting, a task organised by the brother who knew of my
earlier connection with bookmaker Kevin. It was district Cup final day
and it was busy. I met Lew and Marie then. They were with Kevin, the
bookmaker mentioned previously that I had worked with on and off
previously depending on the sobriety of his staff. Seriously. Kevin
was on the bag for Lew this day, Marie and Kevin would manage the book
until Punchy arrived to take over the bag and Kevin would do the book
and Lew would write.
 After lunch and after the second race Kevin asked me to run some bets
for him. Lew said it was okay I filled out the call sheets and worked
a couple of races, did the collection, balanced and signed off and
talked a lot to Marie.
 Then the horse owner brother asked if I could help in the Tote,
counting and wrapping coin and sorting and counting notes. It was
about 15 minute's work for which the Tote paid me $10. The Tote had a
mechanised coin wrapper that compressed (marginally) and held the coin
then wrapped it in a paper tube, 4 layers thick and much quicker than
manual wrapping.. You opened the tube by cracking it like an egg,
hitting up against a sharp surface. It required an effort and made a
noise. I did about 30 tubes ($4 in 20c) with this and left them in the
money room. I got a tea and returned and noticed that some of the
tubes had been taken. I was in the company of employees, both when
wrapping, leaving and returning with my tea. I then heard the
distinctive sound, a crack, of the tubes being broken in the room next
door, the ladies toilet. The girls went in there and found a casual
employee in the process of opening the tubes, with some tubes already
opened, the coin in her cardigan pocket and about $600 in notes also.
She admitted the lot and also admitted 10 or more instances in recent
weeks. The Tote manager said they were out of balance by $2300 during
that time but no plan had been put in place to see why.
I had a time outside the tote and told Marie about what had happened.
Punchy the bagman had not arrived and they had been busy. Lew asked me
to talk him before I left for the day.
The Tote manager asked me to help out again, counting and wrapping,
which I did (they gave me $50, and as you said in the 60's- groovy) -
we were balanced, paid out and packing up within 30 minutes of the
last race.
The Tote manager took my name and contact details and said the company
may make a job offer based on his recommendation. See, and I thought
it was my Old Spice and besides who else around there paid $60 for an
hours work. I had learnt money counting, sorting, wrapping as a bank
teller for a year or so years previously and after that I had worked
for a couple of bookmakers too and then did odd jobs around the place.
I was always in work.
The tote temporaries were paid off and left and I watched the manager
dis assemble a tote machine, a mechanical calculator that worked
better when worked continuously, he said. No bet data was entered
until after the tote closure, three or more girls then entered the bet
data, the data was totalled and then rung through and telexed to HQ in
Sydney where presumably it was added to other collected pools for that
race. The final div was decided in Sydney although a local div was
calculated too, the holdings particular to the meeting and race. The
divs differed widely I was told.
The local div could be decided quickly and this info was often sourced
by Marie and others. The info was used in the last minutes of betting.
In isolation it was good information to have, the locals, betting on
their favourites and the owners and trainers, with inside knowledge
betting on the Tote early then plunging with the bookies late in the
betting but their intentions telegraphed often.
I was waiting in the car park as it emptied, waiting for Lew and
Marie. They showed up, Marie had been talking to Nuns. Lew offered me
a job. He had been given some background by Kevin, for whom I had
worked 10 or so meetings and who was now retired but managing his
property portfolio. Lew had  a problem, Punchy (because he is Mr
Punch) had missed a couple of meetings and was in the mix to go to UK
as a member of the Kangaroos support staff for 11 weeks and he had
several boxers in training that would take him away for a period after
that. It was 7 day a week employment with work on Sundays also however
half days off would become available. 
I said yes and started with him the next day, a Sunday. I had wanted
to be a bookmaker and had saved my security deposit. I was a small
punter, in preseason training, an occasional smoker, a non-drinker,
out of love again. The fall back plan was to be a patrol officer in
PNG, I nearly got that too.
The girl who stole the money is the daughter of one of the brothers,
and niece to the others.
Lew never took credit bets. It peeved the other fielders no end. 
Lew had a cash payout limit of $400. If your bet won you got $400 cash
and the balance as a cheque. He did this to maintain cash reserves in
the bag, and in the ring generally. Some of the others had no policy,
they just gave you a cheque if you won, no cash and others, like us,
had a limit, less than ours though.
There was a sign alerting bettors to the cash payout limit and they
were told at the time of placing the bet, by me, using the phrase
'thanks for your business, there is a cash payout limit of $400 on
this bet, any balance in excess of that will be by company cheque. Do
you understand that?" First time clients would then say "What?" and
existing clients, who knew the rules, would say "Cracked record".
Maybe 10% of punters bet this big. Most bet $20 to $50 win on the
favourite or second favourite and a lesser amount on the 3rd and 4th
favourites. We were win betting only. There is no secret bookmakers
information otherwise all winners would have reduced prices but
information regarding ability and intent is accessible and signs of
betting intent are available on course. Some days the money is away.
On days there are expected to be strong betting races there is often
an increased involvement in an earlier race or races. Bettors
invariably spread their money around, a portion of it here and there
and some with us. Lew wanted all the bet money possible and wanted to
hold all the money associated with those bets and priced his board
accordingly. He had a cash payout limit of $400 but often had a
liability of $4000 - $7000 to one or two runners. This at a meeting
where the total income off 7- 8 races may be $10000 and he was
offering up to $7000 on 5-6 of those races. He lost, they all did, but
he won too and between the two outcomes he made a living. Nor did he
shrink or pull back. Say he paid out $5000 in wins on one race then
the next race he would again have liabilities of $7000 and he may have
made up the shortfall over 5 or so races. There are a few cubic feet
in a bookies bag, as big as your microwave oven, but there have been
several times when I saw it full of money, all the notes facing the
right way, all tight in rubber bands, all in bundles of a hundred
notes of all denominations and some of the earlier issued company
cheques were in there as well as their part time owners cashed them in
to have a bet on the 'get out' last race. Then he put $20 on the bar
for volunteers, including the bar staff no matter what result had
occurred on the day. Mind you, a pot cost you 35c then so it was a
fair bit of beer. The committee got their drinks for nothing for some
reason. He never touched the bag money, it was balanced by me, checked
by him, the bag closed and locked and strapped to me until it was
deposited in the night safe at the Bank or into the company floor
safe. An hour after the last we would have been 20 clicks on the way
home, Lew would have been asleep in his joggers, ridiculously tight
shorts and coloured Rugby League jumper waiting for the signal to get
out and jog home 10- 12 kilometres or so, from some pre-determined
spot. 
Marie had an account and an order book, like a cheque book with NSW
Railways and they would some nights get me to drop them at Wagga or
Cootamundra on a Friday or Saturday to catch a sleeper train to
Melbourne or Sydney and return on Tuesday or later. They had a house
in Melbourne and a unit in Sydney. Lew would often arrive back in a
new Ford, a road delivery for a dealer further south, as he was
friends with the Ford executive who controlled this.
The cash payout limit of $400 was a starting point for Marie to wend
her magic words with the winners. The spiel went like this often:
'Look, I'll give you a cheque now for the stake you just used to win
this amount. You can bank that, it's as if you have never spent the
money and then you can use the winnings you have to bet with for the
rest of the day. If you like, each time you win I will write a cheque
for the stake, put those cheques in your shirt pocket and at the end
of the day I will pay you out for them if I can. There are conditions,
we hold the winnings and you bet with us in upcoming races. I will
give you an identification card, you and I will agree on your balance
before the next bet and you initial the card and my ledger and I do
the same." Except, Marie said it all in about 16 words.
Most People thought this was a good idea and took the offer, they had
their money back and in their shirt pocket. Say they had initially
backed a winner at 7/1 with $50. They got the cheque to cover the $50
and had $350 banked to bet in upcoming races. Next race they bet $50
on the favourite and $50 on a longer price. They lose and the initial
winnings are reduced to $250, that's 4/1. Next race, perhaps
chastened, they have $50 on a longer price and it loses. The winning
bet is now priced at 3/1. In the next, say a Cup, with better class
runners they have $100 on their pick, $50 on another and cash their
cheque to have $50 on the place tote. They lose with us and the
winning bet is now priced at 1/1. Our punter has $50 in the Bank.
Marie would then give him the 'talk' and he would walk away with his
$50. If you followed these people I am sure they went to a Tote window
out of sight of mother Marie and plonked on the second favourite for a
place or similar. That 7/1 winner example, Lew may have it as 12/1 in
his pre race market, 12/1 and you are holding 1/1 with it now. Is that
an under or overs or what.
Some people thought it was a good idea and took their winnings and a
cheque and perhaps did not bet with us again that day. In a perfect
world that's supposed to be how it is.
Some people thought it was not a good idea and said so. Some went and
got the Stewards who were very aware of the practice. Punters can
accept the conditions and service and not accept the service and
conditions. Marie took the initial winnings, $400 in the demonstration
used, and put these in a bag at her feet. Her chair legs actually sat
inside a suitcase like contraption, a mobile office for her, with a
bench and lots of pockets. Each bet from the 'bank' was a cash bet
from her to me, called as such with a written ticket, the number
called and recorded by the penciller. The punter got his ticket to
have and hold. To my knowledge there was never a credit bet entered in
the time I worked for the company.
Before my time, Lew did allow a trainer to back several of his own on
credit, they did not pay and subsequent requests for payment were
ignored. He then refused a cash bet by a third party on behalf of the
same trainer on another trainer horse or horses which won. What do you
do in any event, deduct the stake amount from the money owed or apply
the full win amount against the debt. The trainer offered a box
trailer as part payment but this was declined. The trailer was left at
Lew's business for a number of weeks. It was then loaned to a charity
community organisation who did not return it. The story got back to
the owners of the horses he backed on credit. They had not been told
of the betting intentions of the stable and this started a sub-routine
of action by the owners. Then the trainer of the horses which won
became involved and so did those owners. Don't know how that all
panned out but trainer B and his clients were clients of ours.
In the late 60s, trotting and harness racing is the poor cousin in
horse racing prizemoney distribution. Often the on course tote holding
exceeded the off course holding from around Australia. Owners,
trainers and others involved could only gain a benefit if they bet.
Favourites are normally short and defined and runners odds past 50/1
were rare with odds often capped at twice the runner numbers plus 3 or
so e.g. 15 starters meant the longest price was 30/1 + 3 = 33/1. Book
percentage often totalled 130%+, if you could get bet coverage, very
much larger percentages were seen too, and an average would be quite
high as a result. Lew lived and breathed those percentages, he covered
the book with the back bets on longer prices but he made a specialty
of wringing the shorties, calling and cajoling punters, urging them to
compare prices then to come and have their bet with him. You can't
follow the tote, well not back then, because there are no tote price
div displays to scan, Marie could access the calculated divs after the
Tote closed, all the fielders did, there was a blackboard in the Tote
room managers office wall and s/he put the  divs (25c and then $1) on
that as the machine, and it was a machine with cranks and rods and
wheels. It also swallowed my pomme noisette, remember them, when the
whole cup of them rolled across the top of some oscillating rods and
minced themselves as they disappeared, strangely, it quietened the
machine noise, but, look gravity, can't trust it ever. I told the
machinist, and she laughed, so I am not sure she understood. What else
can I do, especially as they have sold out of Chikos by then.

To be continued


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