California aiming to legalise exchange betting on horseracing
Could anything be easier than losing? Anyone who has ever been to a racetrack is a pro when it comes to betting on horses that lose. But what if losing was in fact winning? There is legislation in the works in California that would allow bets on horses to lose.
That would surely spice things up a bit. Take Rachel Alexandra’s run in the personal ensigns. While she was one of the favourites to win the race, many a learned handicappers knew that at that distance, she might not do so well. They didn’t know which horse in the field would eventually take the win but they knew that Rachel would not be the winning horse. At that time, there was no way for them to make money on that but that might change in California and suddenly, it might not be completely impossible to make money in horse racing.
That’s exchange betting for you. Forget about the days of screaming ‘win – win – win’ at the finish line and then fuming when the horse you bet on doesn’t win. Losing is a lot easier but making money on horse racing still wouldn’t be easy though. Just because California legalizes exchange betting doesn’t mean that bookmakers would just roll over and hand out cash. That isn’t even the point, as long as a punter ‘thinks’ they have the better odds, they will come out on the tracks more often than not and horse racing would make more money. The bill which proposes this legislation would also allow larger takeouts from exotic races and put it back into racing purses. It sounds like win-win for Californian horse racing.
The Californian legislature has approved the bill and now all that is needed to make it law is just one signature by Governor Schwarzenegger. The bill was revised to satisfy concerns about it and one of the revisions was a change of time frame. The bill that passed won’t introduce exchange betting until 2012.
“It gives everyone in the industry time to work through their issues and come up with the regulations,” Racing Board Chairman Keith Brackpool opined. There would have to be a great deal of legislation to stop foul play. When it comes to it, criminal elements have a lot more creative liberty to make a favourite lose a race than to get an underdog to win.
The time period from when Governor Schwarzenegger signs the bill into law and when it would come into effect would be used by regulatory authorities to put into place rules that prevent that from happening. “It gives everyone in the industry time to work through their issues and come up with the regulations,” racing board chairman Keith Brackpool said.
The deferred date of implementation was essential to get the Thoroughbred Owners of California on board with exchange betting. “We’re quite comfortable with that,” opined President Arnold Zetcher. “It gives everybody enough time to understand the exchange portion.”
With the legislation, the takeout for exotic wagers would be increased by 2% and for bets that require 3 or more horses by 3%. The move could raise up to $30 million for overnight purses annually. Speaker John Perez, who authored the bill, said that the provisions in the bill would help the horse racing industry. The industry indeed needs all the help it can get and the bill would be hailed by the approximately 50,000 people who are associated with it in California.
But that is only if everything goes according to plan. Critics argue that the bill has been hastily crafted and could in fact be counterproductive. “We want to make sure that the cure is not worse than the disease,” Brett Hale, senior vice president of Churchill Downs noted. Churchill Downs opposed these measures, arguing that not enough care has been taken to ensure that race operators and horse owners get their fair share of bets. Magna Developments also opposed the bill while TVG, which is owned by the largest British exchange wagering company, Betfair came out in its support.
Opponents of gambling have also joined in vowing to have the bill vetoed by the Governor. A spokesman for the governor said he has not taken a position on the bill.
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