Faulty Betting Payoff Has Track Up in Arms

An Atlanta businessman thought he had parlayed a computer glitch into an extra $825 payoff at Hollywood Park on Sunday.

But that was before Richard Siegel was surrounded by a group of track security guards, demanding that he give the money back.

This was merely one of the scenes at the track and off-track betting facilities when a 90-second mixup resulted in overpayments on the seventh race.

Tour, at 2-1, won the race in a photo finish from Lily La Belle, at 15-1, but the first prices on the tote board--with the correct numbers of the horses--showed Tour’s win payoff at $32.60 and the exacta read $115.40 instead of the correct $82.40. Tour’s actual win price was $6.20.

The track removed the prices and took several minutes to put up the correct payoffs. Meanwhile, dozens of bettors, including Siegel, raced to the windows.

Because of the mixup, win tickets on Lily La Belle were honored at the $32.60 price the filly would have paid had she won the photo.

A track spokesman said that Hollywood Park wouldn’t know until later this week how expensive the glitch was.

“Considering the time involved, of about a minute and a half, you can make the assumption that the (financial) damages are reasonably sizable,” he said.

Hollywood Park can deduct the $825 that Siegel thought he was going to pocket. The newsletter publisher bet a $50 exacta box--a total of $100--on Tour and Lily La Belle and his payoff of $2,060 grew to $2,885 because of the error.

At a grandstand window, a parimutuel clerk counted out the first $2,000, which Siegel stuffed in his pocket. Before she could give him the remaining $885, however, Siegel said that at least five security guards approached him.

“One of them pinned me up against the wall, got out his handcuffs and said that I’d be arrested if I didn’t give the money back,” Siegel said.

“I knew I didn’t deserve the extra money, but the guy in front of me cashed his ticket. If I gave them all the money back, I now didn’t have my ticket and wouldn’t have had any recourse. Finally, a track official came along, and he seemed more rational than the security guards, so I cooperated.”

Siegel said that horseplayers in the area cheered him as the guards pressured him for the money.

“The glitch was the result of a breakdown in communications, human error and a malfunction of the tote’s fail-safe system,” a Hollywood Park spokesman said.