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Phone Betting Still On Hold in California

"Said a weary Mark Wilson, former general counsel for Churchill Downs and now president of the Television Games Network, `Too many times have we seen racing presented with a golden opportunity, only to see someone come along and create infighting that defeats the purpose.'

"Based on experiences in New York and some of the 11 other states where phone and Internet betting are legal, tracks need to make their races available via home television before electronic wagering can be widely successful. For months, Wilson has hoped that his TVG, a fledgling satellite network seen by million of customers nationally but available to only about 650,000 homes in California, would be carrying races from Santa Anita, Golden Gate Fields and Bay Meadows. Last week, however, Frank Stronach's Magna Entertainment, which runs those three tracks, announced that Magna was forming its own TV network.

"Wilson responded, saying that Stronach is either trying to scuttle TVG, or is naive about how sports on television works.

"By combining its own TV signal with a betting hub, Magna would retain as much as 61/2% of every bet it takes, rather than sharing with a partner such as TVG.

"The problems between Magna and TVG aside, `advance deposit account wagering,' the official term for electronic betting in California, will not be available, with or without a TV signal, until March or April, said John Van de Kamp, president of the Thoroughbred Owners of California (TOC), a powerful group whose members race horses in the state. California's Office of Administrative Law is reviewing the regulations necessary for launching the betting system, and the California Horse Racing Board may approve some of the betting-hub license applications at its meeting in Arcadia on Jan. 24.

"…There have been estimates that phone betting could result in an additional $30 million that would be shared annually by horsemen—in the form of purse money—with tracks and other agencies cited in the account-wagering bill.

"…But the racing board, the tracks and their partners—who include the Thoroughbred Owners of California—still have a lot of work to do.

"…California will probably begin its era of phone betting with bettors needing to maintain multiple deposit accounts. It does not appear that one company will be accepting bets on Santa Anita and Hollywood Park, and with the telecasts of the races from the Magna tracks in doubt, phone betting as a marketing tool will not be swinging for the fences right away.

"…Many racing executives—among them Jack Liebau at Santa Anita, Rick Baedeker at Hollywood Park and Alan Landsburg, chairman of the state racing board—envision phone betting as something of a windfall but far less than a cure for racing's ills…"

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