TOTALISATOR ACT, 1929

AN ACT TO MAKE PROVISION FOR THE REGULATION AND CONTROL OF TOTALISATORS, AND FOR THE SETTING UP AND WORKING OF TOTALISATORS BY THE REVENUE COMMISSIONERS, AND FOR OTHER MATTERS CONNECTED THEREWITH. [16th July, 1929.]

BE IT ENACTED BY THE OIREACHTAS OF SAORSTÁT EIREANN AS FOLLOWS:—

1 Definitions.

1.—In this Act—

the expression “the Minister” means the Minister for Finance; the word “totalisator” means an apparatus or organisation by means of which an unlimited number of persons can each stake money in respect of a future event on the terms that the amount to be won by the successful stakers is dependent on or to be calculated with reference to the total amount staked by means of the apparatus or organisation in relation to that event but not necessarily on the same contingency, and the said word includes all offices, tickets, recorders, and other things ancillary or incidental to the working of the apparatus or organisation.

2 Prohibition of unlicensed totalisators.

2.—(1) It shall not be lawful for any person (other than the Revenue Commissioners) to set up, maintain, or work a totalisator save in so far and in such manner as such setting up, maintenance and working is authorised by a licence in that behalf granted under this Act.

• (2) Every person who sets up, maintains, or works a totalisator in contravention of this section shall be guilty of an offence under this section and shall be liable on summary conviction thereof to an excise penalty of five hundred pounds.

3 Grant of totalisator licences.

3.—(1) The Minister may, if and whenever he thinks fit, grant to such persons as he thinks fit licences (in this Act referred to as totalisator licences) to set up, maintain, and work totalisators.

• (2) Every totalisator licence shall operate to authorise the person to whom it is granted (who shall be named in the licence) to set up, maintain, and work a totalisator at the place and on the occasion or occasions or during the period specified in such licence but subject to the conditions and restrictions set out in such licence and to the regulations made by the Minister under this Act.

• (3) The Minister may charge such fee for the grant of any totalisator licence as he shall think fit, and any such fee may be either a single payment or a series of periodical payments and may be either of fixed or of variable amount and in the latter case may, if the Minister so thinks fit, be calculated by reference to the sums staked by means of the totalisator to which the licence relates.

• (4) A totalisator licence may, as the Minister shall think fit, be granted in respect of any one or more specified places or in respect of all places of one or more specified classes or descriptions in Saorstát Eireann or any specified part of Saorstát Eireann and may be granted for one or more specified occasions or for all occasions of one or more specified classes or descriptions occurring during a specified period.

• (5) The Minister may attach to any totalisator licence such restrictions and conditions as he shall think fit but no such condition or restriction shall be of any effect unless the same is set out in the licence.

• (6) Where the Minister grants a licence to any person or persons to operate in any place or places or where the Revenue Commissioners set up, maintain or work a totalisator at any place or places the persons having the management of such place or places shall provide a place or places whether in a building or not where licensed bookmakers (provided always that they are not disqualified persons under any recognised Rules of Racing) may carry on their business and to which the public may resort for the purpose of betting, and the charge to any such licensed bookmaker and to any assistant accompanying him for admission to such place or places for the purpose of the licensed bookmaker's business shall, in the case of any such licensed bookmaker not exceed five times the amount and in the case of an assistant not exceed the amount of the charge made to members of the public for admission to the place or places where the licensed bookmaker intends to carry on his business.

4 Totalisators set up by Revenue Commissioners.

4.—(1) The Minister may authorise the Revenue Commissioners to set up, maintain, and work a totalisator in such places and on such occasions as he shall direct or, if the Minister so thinks fit, in such places and on such occasions as the Revenue Commissioners shall with the consent of the Minister think fit.

• (2) This section shall not authorise the setting up of a totalisator in any place without the consent of the person who owns or has control of the use of or admission to such place.

5 Disposal of totalisator fees and profits.

5.—All fees paid for the grant of totalisator licences under this Act and all profits derived from the working of totalisators by the Revenue Commissioners under this Act shall be paid into or disposed for the benefit of the Exchequer in such manner as the Minister shall direct.

6 Regulations in regard to totalisators.

6.—(1) The Minister may by order make regulations for controlling and regulating the setting up, maintenance, and working of totalisators under totalisator licences.

• (2) The Minister may by order make regulations for regulating and controlling the working of totalisators set up by the Revenue Commissioners under this Act and the use of such totalisators by the public or the members of the public having access to the places in which such totalisators are set up.

• (3) Every regulation made under this section shall be laid before each House of the Oireachtas as soon as may be after it is made, and if either such House shall, within the next subsequent twenty-one days on which it has sat after such regulation is laid before it, pass a resolution annulling such regulation, such regulation shall be annulled accordingly, but without prejudice to the validity of anything previously done thereunder.

7 Penalties.

7.—If any person contravenes any of the conditions or restrictions subject to which the Minister has issued a totalisator licence under this Act or contravenes any regulation made by the Minister under this Act he shall be guilty of an offence and shall for each offence on summary conviction thereof be liable to an excise penalty of five hundred pounds.

8 Expenses.

8.—All expenses incurred in carrying this Act into execution shall, to such extent as may be sanctioned by the Minister, be paid out of moneys provided by the Oireachtas.

9 Repeal.

9.—Sections 23 to 27 of the Betting Act, 1926 (No. 38 of 1926), are hereby repealed.

10 Short title.

10.—This Act may be cited as the Totalisator Act, 1929.