Pink Tickets

"Old Tatt" (Richard Tattersall) may well have turned in his grave last week. When he founded in 1766 what has become "Tatter-sail's," the most famous horse race betting ring in England, no such pink, blue and green tickets had been thought of as were sold by "bookies" throughout Britain for the first time last week.

" 'Sblood, Sir!" Old Tatt would have roared, "man and boy I've been everything from stud groom to business partner of 'is Majesty George IV*. . . . I've seen a good bit I 'ave! But I never thought to see the day when a bloody bettin' tax 'ud be collected at Tattersall's by the sellin' o' pink tickets!"

Pink tickets, and green and blue, were sold none the less last week under the new betting tax law, drafted by Chancellor of the Exchequer Winston Churchill (TIME, May 3). On the first day that the tickets were issued "bookies" at Tattersall's sold them as souvenirs. On the third day Tattersall's bookies struck, refused to accept bets, and since Tattersall's odds are the basis of odds throughout Britain, brought British betting to a temporary standstill.

Eventually betting was resumed on the legal basis that the Government must receive between 2% and 3 1/2% of every bet laid, according to the nature of the bet. Small itinerant bookies must pay their tax through the sale of tickets. The great betting concessionaires may file their tax returns with the Government direct on the basis of their duly audited accounts.

*"Bluff George" and "Old Tatt" owned jointly for several years the Tory Morning Post.