Out-of-Town Track Wager Bill Advances

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 of the races at race tracks and fairgrounds throughout the region.

Racing industry officials estimate that the bill, aimed at four race tracks and as many as 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. As much as $10 million would be generated for fairgrounds and another $1 million would go to the state budget.

The bill, sponsored by Sen. Ken Maddy (R-Fresno), would enable metropolitan Los Angeles gamblers to go to Santa Anita, Hollywood Park and Los Alamitos race tracks or the Pomona fairgrounds to bet on races held in Del Mar, the seaside San Diego County track. And when one of the Los Angeles-area tracks is operating, horse players would be able to bet on its races from Del Mar or from any fairgrounds betting hall outside of Los Angeles and Orange 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 to those at the track where the races occur.

Such betting has been legal in Northern California for three years. Maddy’s bill would extend the same principle to Southern California but does 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 horse and harness racing at southern tracks.

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

The bill also would take a portion of the money bet via satellite to pay the costs of extra vans and stables for horses which, because of space shortages, cannot be kept at the track hosting the racing meet.

The legislation represents a compromise among many interests, including the tracks, the horsemen, the fairs and labor unions, most of whom still want changes to further 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 every place else,” Ellis 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 would provide badly needed money for construction of 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.