Pete Rose Says He Has Resumed Gambling

Pete Rose says he is betting again, less than four years after admitting he could not control the gambling problem that got him banned from baseball.

Rose said, however, that he is not betting illegally with bookies and not on baseball, but on horse races at the track, and that his gambling is under control.

“I don’t do illegal gambling anymore,” he told the Cincinnati Post Thursday. “But I’m not going to sit here and tell you I don’t gamble anymore, because I’d be lying.

“I went to the Kentucky Derby last year, and if people think I’m going to the Kentucky Derby to watch the horses . . . I can go to the farm to watch the horses. But I’m not going to go (to the track) the next day, and the day after that. What’s the big deal about that?”

Rose was banned from baseball in the summer of 1989 after being accused of betting illegally with bookies on major league games, including those involving his Cincinnati Reds. He later served five months in federal prison for income tax evasion.

“Pete Rose has no association with baseball, so it makes no difference to us,” said Rich Levin, a spokesman for major league baseball.