There was no personal abuse whatsoever directed at Rod Nicholson.

It may be stretching the point a little to call the vested interests, TABs etc. his "friends", but it is a perfectly acceptable debating technique.

Clearly based upon Rod Nicholson's article he has obtained information from vested interests about their course of action.

Think about it. What is so special about racing? Why does racing think it has the right to demand a royalty, what is it, 5%, from anyone who bets on it.

What about all the other sports? What royalties do they get? If massive amounts of the pool went in royalties etc. we've have a head to head sporting event at $1.50 or so for each side!!!!

Of course, you can try and get away with that in racing, because punters get conned by the individual odds of many horses in a race.

On the surface a market of 130% does not appear as bad as it really is compared to making the same market for a head to head sporting event.

The internet has given individuals freedoms like never before. Betting Exchanges with 95% to 97% of moneys bet being returned to bettors have the potential over time to even increase the amount of money racing gets. No operator has said they are prepared to pay nothing to Racing.

If people believe they have a genuine chance of breaking around even or coming ahead over the long term many more people will bet plus there will be substantial increases in betting turnover.

We should be leading the way in embracing change and new technology instead of living in the past and trying to outlaw change.

Look at how few Australian racing bookies have live prices and live internet betting. It's an absolute disgrace.

We should be making use of the internet to attract a world market to betting on our sporting events instead of trying to ban Australians from using the internet to bet on overseas operated sights.

That is completely insular and dated thinking. It won't succeed. Nor will the scare tactics advertising of the NSW TAB on Sky Racing. Not in a democracy.

[ This Message was edited by: Neil on 2003-05-08 10:48 ]