BANGALORE: The Bangalore Turf Club conducted off-course betting on Mumbai races organised by the Royal Western India Turf Club. An announcement at the BTC said, “Totalisator operations would not be conducted on Sunday and the inconvenience caused to the racing public was regretted.” Which meant, betting would only be accepted by bookmakers, licenced and probably unlicensed too, for many are believed to operate on BTC premises.As things turned out, outsiders ruled the roost at Mumbai and bookies were busy filling their coffers. Not being able to cover up their losses, the racing public felt something was amiss. They prevented bookies from accepting bets as well. Sensing that the situation might go out of hand, BTC’s totalisator system suddenly sprang to life. They announced they would function and betting would be accepted on the totalisators after 3 pm. Normalcy was thus restored and public continued to bet. BTC secretary Nirmal Prasad told Express, “We had already announced the programme, so it was not cancelled. We had also announced before the races that totalisator betting would not take place.” BTC even cancelled its own racing programme despite the schedule card was printed. On Sunday, it was reluctant to call off the programme for reasons not quite clear. A BTC member said that bookmakers in Bangalore had collected money and donated it to the BTC to conduct Invitation Cup weekend races, which was confirmed by a licenced bookie.
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