Playboy.com partnering with pari-mutuel wagering site

Monday, April 16, 2001 | 11:18 a.m.

Playboy.com Inc. said today it signed a deal with Penn National Gaming Inc. to co-develop PlayboyRacingUSA.com, an online pari-mutuel wagering site for horse racing.

Penn National will be responsible for the day-to-day operations and overhead, including hardware and software, management and customer support. Playboy will provide marketing, branding, design and content, said a statement issued by Playboy.com, which is a subsidiary of Playboy Enterprises.

Bettors from around the world will have access, through PlayboyRacingUSA.com, to live racing and wagering from nearly 30 racetracks throughout the United States and Canada.

Online pari-mutuel wagering is one exemption to the U.S. ban on Internet gambling, resulting from an amendment to the Interstate Horse Racing Act made during last year's Congressional session, said Tony Cabot, an Internet gambling lawyer for the Las Vegas firm Lionel Sawyer & Collins.

"However, pari-mutuel wagering has to be legal in both the sending and receiving states," Cabot said.

The site, scheduled to be launched in the third quarter this year, will have safeguards to prevent accepting wagering from states and jurisdictions where online pari-mutuel wagering is prohibited, Playboy.com said.

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