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New Pari-Mutuel Bill Could Help Revive Local Race Books

A bill that was passed in the final hour of the regular legislative session could help revitalize the state's slumping race book industry, industry experts said Monday.

Tony Cabot, a partner in law firm Lionel, Sawyer & Collins, hailed the little noticed legislation authorizing Nevada race books to accept bids placed off site as "good for Nevada casinos because it allows race books to regain a competitive parity with California and other states currently engaged in the activity."

The bill allowing "account wagering," which will become law if Gov. Kenny Guinn fails to veto it by Wednesday, will still require state Gaming Commission action before it can go into effect.

Proponents, however, say the measure will help Nevada's $500 million a year race book industry fend off challenges from other gambling states.

Since 1998 when Nevada race books started feeling the pinch of competition, the horse racing handle has fallen to $470 million from $619 million, a drop of 24 percent, Cabot said.

Account wagering, which allows an individual to create an account with a Nevada race book and deposit funds in that account, has been identified by the Nevada Pari-mutuel Association, the industry trade association created in 1990, as the key to reversing the decline.

Individuals with such accounts can contact the race book by telephone or Internet and place bets using the money on deposit, Cabot explained.

Account wagering now makes up between 4 percent and 6 percent of all legal horse racing betting in the United States estimated at $15 billion to $20 billion a year, he said.

A Bear, Stearns & Co. report has said "it will be one of the key growth drivers of the horse racing industry in the next few years."

The new law is particularly important because the Nevada "handle on horse racing has been going steadily down" as a result of competition from other states, the report said.

Nevada Gaming Control Board Chairman Dennis Neilander said 14 other states allow telephone wagering on horse racing, including California since 2000.

However, the board will have to research safeguards other states have implemented "to make sure we don't have minors wagering or individuals from jurisdictions where it's not legal," he said.

He declined to speculate when "account wagering" might be allowed to begin.

Vinny Magliulo, vice president of corporate development at the Las Vegas Dissemination Co., which provides the majority of the horse racing broadcast signals to local race books and the interface for all pari-mutuel bets that are made here, said the key for Las Vegas is that the new law will help the gaming industry work with the horse racing business to promote interest in the field.

"Nevada has always promoted and encouraged this as the most diverse entertainment package anywhere, unsurpassed from a gaming standpoint," he said.

Although legislation was passed in 1997 to allow the practice in Nevada, the program faltered because regulations were not adopted in light of concerns about the legality of interstate account wagering, Cabot said.

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