An automatic totalisator is a device to add up the bets in a pari-mutuel betting system. The whole of the pot (the stakes on all competitors) is divided pro-rata to the stakes placed on the winning competitor and those tickets are paid out.

Essentially it implements a system of starting price (SP) betting.

In particular it refers to the invention of George Alfred Julius, the English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

-born, New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

 educated, Australian inventor, engineer

Engineer

An engineer is a professional practitioner of engineering, concerned with applying scientific knowledge, mathematics and ingenuity to develop solutions for technical problems. Engineers design materials, structures, machines and systems while considering the limitations imposed by practicality,...

 and businessman, a leader of Australian engineering in the first half of the twentieth century.

The term automatic refers to the face that the bets were automatically summed and a ticket issued when a bet was registered on the issuing machines, and it provided a safe and virtually fraud free method of betting, replacing the earlier jam-pot totes, which used either paper transactions or some method of counting bets like steel ball bearings. The machine did not actually calculate the payout.

It is a nice example of the gradually automation of calculation before the computer industry which owed nothing to Julius' invention got going.

The method was widely used in the Australian, New Zealand and American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 horse-racing industries and for greyhound racing

Greyhound racing

Greyhound racing is the sport of racing greyhounds. The dogs chase a lure on a track until they arrive at the finish line. The one that arrives first is the winner....

 in the UK, though there were other installations in countries as diverse as France, Venezuela and Singapore.