I'm sure you can Party. Problems though it doesn't matter where you bet if your a winner they will sack you or restrict how much you can bet to win. As low as $50 max [to win $50] in one case I know of. No such problem with the tote because it's not their money you win it's a % of the prize pool.

During the Sydney carnival did anyone read of that 86 yr old bloke that stagged up to a tote window at ranwick and plonked a green plastic rubbish bag down on the counter and wanted a $100,000 win bet [not sure of the race, or horse now] and a $10,000 2 horse quin. They counted it out and he had $113k, so 12k went on the quin and 101k the win.

He won $505,000 on the win bet but the 2nd horse for the quin came last. A no questions asked bet. Theoretically he could do that every day of the week if he was lucky enough at any tote window. Try that with a bookie or any of the NT mob. They wouldn't accept even $100 bets if you were a high % winner. They only want mugs who mostly lose or [almost] mugs who win a bit, loose a bit and muddle along at best, but don't cost them money [like me and probably a few others here].

If anyone thinks that one day they are going to be living off the bookies [what do you think they are, mug punters?] is living in LA LA land. Betfair and TAB only. Ok, you'll get a little less divvy off the TAB's [who cares if your that good?] but at least you can legally do it. Kerry Packer could have really big bets with the bookies because they all knew he was a mug punter who mostly lost. The bookies just shared out the risk with each other because it was worth their while to do so. The Casino's welcomed him for the same reasons [although he scared the hell out of them a few times].