Trouble at the Track

Italy's race tracks were deserted and shut down. Horses stood idle in their stalls, horseplayers were desolate and bookmakers were no busier than drugstore cowboys. Cause of the crisis: a misplaced decimal point.

Last fall the Italian government looked around for new funds to plug a deficit in its Soccorso Invernale (Winter Help for the Needy). Already taxed were theaters, movies, authors' copyrights, railroad tickets, streetcar fares, ski lifts and admission tickets to gambling casinos and race tracks. The next step, the government decided, was to tax track bets as well. Last year Italian horseplayers bet 30 billion lire ($48,000,000), and 1% of that sum would have been ample to help the Winter Help. But a clerk in the Ministry of Interior tripped over his decimals in drafting the law. He made the tax 10% instead of 1%. Interior Under Secretary Guido Bisori sent the bill to Parliament without checking the figures.

In the Lower Chamber, Christian Democrat Deputy Antonio Folchi, a man who knows his way around the tracks, objected, but his complaints found few supporters: hardly a deputy wanted to go on record as opposed to worthy Winter Help. No sooner was the 10% tax enacted when Italians began deserting the races. Many started betting among themselves. Without revenues from track betting and gate receipts, the government-controlled agency that puts up prize money announced that it could no longer guarantee purses. Some owners were offering horses to slaughterhouses at knockdown prices. The tracks were forced to shut down and more than 50,000 trainers, jockeys, grooms and stableboys were thrown out of work, might soon become eligible for Winter Help.

Last week desperate Agriculture Minister Giuseppe Medici conferred with Premier Mario Scelba, ordered a new bill drafted, promised that the decimal point would be put in its proper place.

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