“Could the horseracing industry be reaching the end of the line?”

In the past, only if you were physically at the racetrack could you place a bet on horseracing. However with enacting of the 1978 Interstate Horseracing Act, it transformed it all and enabled gamblers to place bets in one state and gamble in other states on horseracing. As a result simulcast horse racing throughout the country became immensely popular, and in the year 2000 when an amendment to the Act permitted online betting, thoroughbred racing account betting expanded into the speediest sector. Kentucky Derby the previous month, for instance, represented a boost for the companies permitting you to bet via the computer or television. On Derby Day, a horseracing network, TVG which accepts wagers via the Internet, or by phone, deals with six point four million dollars on the day; while four point two million dollars went through Youbet.com. Considering this business was covered in the space of one day, the industry counts both sums as records.

Online pari-mutuel betting is not as secure as it seems to be looking, with the Congress active in encouraging legislation for Internet gambling and the World Trade Organization deciding that the United States policies on online horseracing betting is in violation of usages of free and honest trading.

In reference to the legislation activity in Congress, Senator Jon Kyl of Arizona has brought in a new bill which targets credit card companies and banks to prevent them being involved with illegal Internet gambling by making aiding betting transactions. Kyl’s bill does not exclude racetrack betting as did former bills which endeavored to prevent gambling on the Internet. Every former bill against gambling on the Internet, which Kyl has endeavored to bring in and pass legislation in Congress have not succeeded. In a similar fashion, bills brought in by assorted other Congress members previously trying to put an end to Internet gambling have not succeeded. Due to the fact that Kyl’s recent bill does not exempt racetrack betting it does have this edge over the others. In that it does not exempt racetrack betting, the World Trade Organization’s resolution does not clash with the bill.

University of Arizona’s Race Track Industry Program’s associate coordinator, Steve Barham, clarified that the World Trade Organization saw difficulties in the Interstate Horseracing Act due to the fact that it allows operators such as Youbet, XpressBet, TVG and others to engage United States bettors in business transactions. Those bettors, simultaneously, cannot be accessed in the same way by overseas Internet casinos.

Barham poses the question, so what does it all lead to? He answers that it’s not quite clear. He added further that it appears to him that it’s the right time for a debate in Congress and perhaps legislative activity. Remarking on the resolution of the World Trade Organization, Peter F. Allegeier, the United States Trade Representative, said that it’s the right time for a debate in Congress and perhaps legislative activity. The National Thoroughbred Racing Association’s executive vice-president, Greg Avioli, indicated that the resolution of the World Trade Organization brings to the fore the entire matter.

A not very large, but expanding section of the racing industry will be substantially truncated if the United States finally does prohibit every sort of betting from distant locations and racetrack account betting. Out of an assessed fifteen billion dollars, so says the National Thoroughbred Racing Association, about three billion dollars, that is one fifth, is made from account betting and over half of that from the bets made on the Internet.