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Show BY H.I.PHILLIPS X WIU Feat-irw THE OCCUPATIONAL TAX -ONGRESS may make bookies, pool operators, etc., register an' pay "occupational tax" as well as a ten per cent special tax on all their business. It proposes that they reveal their setup, keep books, have a license and open their records rec-ords of day-by-day operations on demand. There may be heavy penalties for "taking a sucker without a license," as it were. But the war on gambling will never get far until the bettors are also required re-quired to register. You say bettors bet-tors can't be asked to register and pay an "occupational tax" because be-cause playing the skinners, for example, is not their occupation? Nonsense! Millions of horse players play-ers hive regular jobs, but give more time to the form sheets and charts than they do to their employer. em-ployer. If trying to win a three-horse three-horse parlay isn't an "occupation" "occupa-tion" requiring years of hard work, vhat is? Shudda Haddim, the two-dollar two-dollar plunger, is candid enough to admit that players might well come under an occupational oc-cupational levy. "You would be surprised how many people peo-ple In the United States or in every hamlet, town, city and state are fully occupied in analyzing past performances, studyin' the race sheets, mull- in' over weights and distances and figurin' jockey weights," he said today. "Every office and shop has at least a couple of guys on the payroll whose time belongs to the boss but whose heart belongs be-longs to the bookies. They spend the rriornin' dopin' out the beetles an' most of the afternoon waitin' for results. I have had regular jobs myself and I know how it is. I get home every night so exhausted from that I always felt I should ask the boss for more money to lose on also rans. But I got a tough boss. The big bum sticks to the job and pays strict attention to business while I am strugglin' to win a daily double over the telephone. tele-phone. Is that fair?" Shudda Haddim thinks he should; be subject to an occupational tax but that the boss should pay it. "In my next demands I am, askin' for two days oft a week to go to the track and I think the boss should subscribe to the rac-j ing sheets for me. He should also pay my occupation tax as part of1 my social security. It is important to any business that the help be nappy and that the morale be good. How can my morale be good on a job if I have to play! the races at my own expense?" "How about a law requiring the bookies to set aside funds for a. nension fund for all horse play-' ars?" we asked. "You got sumpin' there," said, Shudda Haddim. "But it could not, oe governed by age limits on ac- :ount of a horse player never gets: :oo old to make a bet. The law' would have to make him eligible !or a pension . after losing his 25,000th parlay or maybe his, !0,000th daily double. "Suppose a law compelled you and all bettors on races, football games, elections, fights and so lorth to register?" we asked. "It would be okay," he replied. re-plied. "I suppose the Government Gov-ernment would set up registration registra-tion places. All I would ask is that these registration depots have plenty of racin' sheets and a good supply of telephone tele-phone booths In case I have to wait." Shudda Haddim added that he is quite certain the Government will ultimately get around to taking tak-ing care of horse players, surrounding sur-rounding them with every guaranty guar-anty against lean times, a shortage f comforts and moderately tough going. "I would not be surprised if in a few more years there was 3 Government agency created to handicap horses for the rank and .lie, issue daily selections for the Forgotten Man and supply some form of Federal insurance for laily-double losers." ; RACE CHART SPECIALS Shut The Door . . . May get in. Fiery Trail . . . Hot now. Big Bones . . , Shows form. Bolo Punch . . . Needs right connections. Big Indian . . . Chief threat. Evicted . . . May come back. "Man With Bad Memory Admits He Has Four Wives." Headline. Bad? It's positively beyond repair! re-pair! Elmer Twitchell has studied both sides of the case in the matter of the Formosa contract scandal and says it is all Chinese to him. Connecticut chose a Tobacco Queen. Needless to say one of aer winning points was that she; iid not appear in a Havana wrapper, wrap-per, i j |
