Bookmakers take bets on a particular outcome, and pay off on these bets if they turn out to be correct. Bookmaking is legal in Jamaica and the industry is regulated by the government and bookmakers have to pay taxes and fees. In the very early days, the bookmaker and horse owner were often one and the same. Modern bookmaking appears to have had its forerunner in the 1940s with Frank Watson's Off-C
ourse Betting, which conducted off-track pari-mutuel betting and acted as agent of the racing promoters of the day. A break with the promoting company in 1955 led to the start of independent bookmaking as we have it today. Still, bookmaking was not an activity that was legally sanctioned and there was a constant adversarial relationship between the bookmakers and racing promoters, who opposed their activities. Bookmakers were generally perceived as scoundrels and parasites preying upon the racing industry, and their activities as detrimental to the sport. In the 1960s, representations were made to Sir Alexander Bustamante to legalise bookmakers and he encouraged bookmakers to band together in an association, to better represent their case. By the beginning of the 1970s, the 20th-century horse-racing pioneer, Frank Watson, was joined by other established companies. Track Price Plus and Charles Off Course Betting were already established, to be followed by Ideal Betting, Summit, Cornwall, Post to Post and, much later, Folly's Betting in 1993. The Betting, Gaming and Lotteries Act (1966) paved the way for legalised bookmaking.
