With the evolution of online bookmakers, punters now have a choice between betting with a TAB or a bookmaker. Any punter who bets on the TAB in each of those areas receives the same TAB dividend on every event. 'If Baby Bling is the horse who makes this problem go away I'll get a photo of the finish for my wall.'Дore said the huge bets were affecting every other punter and, while he had seen no evidence that a rebate deal was to blame, he hoped Supertab officials would move to stop the practice.ДЄ Tabcorp spokesman, who would not reveal the identity of the punter, said while it did not support betting that distorted pools, there was no evidence of illegal activity.Дore said when New Zealand joined the Victorian, West Australian, Tasmanian and ACT TABs in a co-mingling agreement with Tabcorp, it undertook not to give incentives like set rebates to customers.Д«ut, in a recently completed loyalty scheme that trialled for a number of weeks, one high-flyer had his name drawn from a group and won a cash prize.Дore said punters should hear warning bells every time they saw a horse's displayed dividend drop to 60c or lower, and Trackside presenters might be asked to alert people to the possibility of reduced returns.The VIC TAB is co-mingling pools between the Victorian, WA and ACT TABs called SuperTAB. 'Hopefully that might bring him down to earth,' Dore said. Had Baby Bling placed, the dividends for the second and third horses would have been annihilated, portions of their pool used to make up Baby Bling's $1 minimum.Д«ut when she failed to get in the money, punters got a windfall with wonky dividends of winner Six Of The Best paying $25.50 for a win and $32 for a place, (instead of $28 and $6.60) runner-up Sign Him Up paying $33, and third-placed Bacmanturner $11.70. The punter's big place bet went on so late it did not show up in the co-mingled total until after the race, when the win pool reached $31,700, and place pool hit $87,400.Дividends on the screen had Baby Bling at 60c for a place, but NZ TAB racing manager Michael Dore said her starting price was actually only 30c, the lowest it could go.

When the race started the win pool showed $22,000 and the place pool $12,000. A Melbourne Herald-Sun study found that, in the last three weeks, the punter had invested more than $1.3 million on place bets вЂ“ for a rebate of at least $78,000.Д«ut it all came unstuck last Wednesday night at Penrith when the punter singled out Western Terror filly Baby Bling, who was sold out of Gordon and Colin Lee's Wyndham stable in February, after just two starts.Д«aby Bling, winner of four of her five starts since arriving in Australia, started a $1.20 win favourite in the Blacktown Pace but, after being trapped three wide, only battled into fourth. The win pool at Ripon closed at $1824, but the place pool reached $54,186. It wasn't hard to pick other races last week where the punter weighed in вЂ“ four races at the Albion Park trots last Tuesday were targeted вЂ“ as was an obscure event in England the previous night, where the punter is believed to have had more than $50,000 to place on $1.40 favourite and eventual winner Trojan Nights.

TAB officials were alerted to the plunge when they noticed place betting on the race swell to more than win betting, a scenario almost never seen in Australia, where win betting is predominant. That's because, under the rules, even though Black Caviar was showing only 50c for a place, her dividend was made up to $1, by first using all the TAB's commission on place bets, then deducting money from the pool share of the other two placegetters. The huge late bet, which completely skewed the odds, meant punters who backed the second and third placegetters, got back considerably less than they should have, Hay List paying $1.10 instead of $1.50, and Buffering $3.70, instead of $4.80.

So, regardless of where Black Caviar finished, he was guaranteed a return of at least $12,000 for his place bet, thanks to the rebate.

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