Horsemen push for online bets

Mark Johnson

Wednesday, May 18, 2005 | 9:14 a.m.

ALBANY, N.Y. -- It may never match the excitement of seeing a field of thoroughbreds thundering to the finish live at Saratoga or Belmont, but the Internet may help give horse racing a future in New York.

Horse racing experts on Tuesday touted online betting as a way to increase revenue and pump life into an industry that has seen better days in New York. They testified at an Albany hearing on the future of racing, saying the state should revamp its laws to allow people to point, click and bet.

"It's real, it exists, and we shouldn't just be allowing entities that are not our own to have the whole marketplace," said Jack Knowlton, the managing partner of Sackatoga Stable, the owner of 2003 Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes winner Funny Cide. "It's a real convenience, particularly when you're talking about attracting younger people to the game. If we want to bring New York racing into the 21st century, this is a part of that."

The New York Racing Association, which operates the Saratoga, Belmont and Aqueduct race tracks, lost _$20 million in 2003, _$21.7 million in 2002 and _$12 million in 2001, according to financial records.

Besides its fiscal problems, NYRA has been watched by a court-appointed monitor as part of an agreement with federal prosecutors to settle fraud charges.

Attendance at the state's harness tracks has been flagging for years and Off-Track Betting executives testified that they are struggling to compete with out-of-state operators, particularly those in New Jersey where online betting is legal.

Years ago, the Legislature passed a law allowing thoroughbred and harness track betting over the telephone. The law did not address Internet gambling because it didn't exist, said Joe Lynch, chief of racing operations for the state Racing and Wagering Board.

Bills that would have allowed Internet gambling on horse racing in New York failed last year. A spokesman for William Larkin, chairman of the Senate Committee on Racing, Gaming and Wagering, said the measures would be introduced again.

While online betting is closed to New Yorkers, people in states where it's legal can make wagers on races at Belmont or Saratoga at sites such as http://www.youbet.com or TVG.

Tim Smith, president of Friends of New York Racing, a group of prominent horse racing, breeding and business officials that's trying to help reshape New York's thoroughbred industry, says his group is "enthusiastically in favor" of online betting.

Smith said industry surveys show a majority of customers who participate in so-called account betting prefer to do so online. New York is in the minority of states that restrict account wagering to the telephone.

"It's more convenient and customers prefer it," said Smith, the former commissioner of the National Thoroughbred Racing Association. "All things being equal, that ought to produce more revenue, purse money, taxes and so forth."

State Sen. Frank Padavan, a Queens Republican and vocal gambling opponent, said there are already 1.1 million compulsive or problem gamblers in New York, a number he says will increase with ever more gambling venues.

"It's mind-boggling that they want to put more people in a position to be enticed into gambling," Padavan said. "It'll be more people gambling more often. Should that be state policy? I hope not. There is no reason to make an already serious problem worse than it is."

Smith said NTRA numbers show about _$15 billion is bet each year nationally on horse racing, with account wagering representing 20 percent of the total.

"I think it's a big future for all of us," said Michael Connery, chief executive of Capital OTB. "It's something that has to come about if we're to compete in this era."