Senate OKs Bill for Out-of-Town Track Wagering

The Senate on Friday approved and sent to the Assembly legislation that would permit Southern Californians to wager on out-of-town horse races as they watch live telecasts at race tracks and fairgrounds throughout the region.

Orange County Fair officials, however, said that the bill shortchanges the county and that they will oppose it unless it is amended in the Assembly.

Racing industry officials estimated that the bill, which will affect four race tracks and up to a dozen fairgrounds from the Mexican border to as far north as Santa Maria, would increase betting by $350 million to $400 million a year. About $50 million of that would go to horsemen in the form of higher purses and to the race tracks in commissions. Up to $10 million would be generated for fairgrounds, and another $1 million would go to the state general fund.

The bill, sponsored by Sen. Ken Maddy (R-Fresno), would, for example, enable gamblers to go to the Los Alamitos, Santa Anita or Hollywood Park tracks or to the Pomona Fairgrounds to bet on races at Del Mar. Other bettors in Southern California, except in Orange and Los Angeles counties, could bet via satellite on races at the tracks in Orange and Los Angeles counties.

Wagers placed in all locations would be transmitted electronically to the operating track, so that odds and payoffs in satellite wagering would be identical at the track and at the satellite points.

Such betting has been legal in Northern California for three years. Maddy’s bill would extend the principle to Southern California but would not permit the two areas to bet on each other’s thoroughbred races.

Under the bill, however, bettors at Northern California fairgrounds would be permitted to wager on quarter horses and harness racing at southern tracks.

Norbert Bartosik, general manager of the Orange County Fair, said the fair’s board of directors wants the Costa Mesa fairgrounds to be considered for a satellite betting facility. He said the betting could generate about $5,000 a day for the fairgrounds.

“We think we could be a good location in Orange County because of our central location,” Bartosik said.

‘Pie-in-the-Sky’

But Maddy called such hopes “pie-in-the-sky” and said satellite betting at the Orange County fairgrounds was out of the question.

“What they’re asking for would break the whole deal,” Maddy said. “The two major tracks (Santa Anita and Hollywood Park) would never sign on to it, and they clearly have enough strength to kill it.”

Maddy said he had already agreed to Orange County’s demand that betting on Del Mar races by satellite at Los Alamitos be barred during the fair’s two-week racing season.

“The key to what Orange County wanted, they got,” he said. “They’ll be the only live racing in Orange County or Los Angeles, and they won’t have anybody at Los Alamitos watching satellite racing from Del Mar during the day when they (the fair) are racing at night. They got quite a bit.”

Maddy’s bill also includes unrelated provisions that would cut track costs by changing several longstanding industry practices. The bill would require the state, rather than the tracks, to pay the costs of veterinarians and drug testing for the horses, plus pay stewards that the state requires be present to supervise the racing.

The bill would also take part of the money bet via satellite to pay the costs of extra vans and stables for horses that, because of space shortages, cannot be kept at the track where the race takes place.

Little Debate

The legislation represents a compromise among many interests, including the tracks, the horsemen, the fairs and labor unions, most of whom still want further changes to satisfy their constituencies. Maddy promised on Friday to address those concerns when the bill moves to the Assembly.

With that in mind, there was little debate on the measure before the Senate approved it on a 27-5 vote. The only spoken opposition came from Sen. Jim Ellis (R-San Diego), who complained that the bill would provide an unneeded expansion of gambling in California.

“Next we’ll be setting up wagering devices in the schools and hospitals and everyplace else,” he said.

“If people want to bet or gamble, they can find a place to do that. To expand it all over the state I just don’t think is a logical thing to do at this time.”

But Maddy said horse racing in California has been “a corrupt-free industry for the last 50 years.” He said his bill would generate jobs for clerks who take bets at the tracks and provide badly needed money to build improvements at the fairgrounds.

In addition to the Pomona and Del Mar fairgrounds, the bill would permit satellite wagering at fairgrounds in Victorville, Indio, San Bernardino, Lancaster, Hemet, Blythe, Ventura, Santa Barbara, Santa Maria, Bakersfield and Imperial.