2002 - Harness Tracks of America, Inc.

HARNESS TRACKS OF AMERICA
Executive Newsletter
A daily fax and e-mail report on racing and gaming developments in North America and beyond
Stanley F. Bergstein, Editor
NO ‘NET CREDIT SAILS THRU
H.R. 556, the bill that bans credit on illegal Internet
wagering, passed the House on a voice vote yesterday
under suspension of the rules. Officially
known as the Unlawful Internet Gambling Funding
Prohibition Act, the measure has no companion
legislation in the Senate, and faces impending
adjournment of Congress. As passed, the bill prohibits
the placing, reception or transmission of a
bet or wager “by any means which involves the
use, at least in part, of the Internet where such bet
or wager is unlawful under any applicable Federal
or State law in the State in which the bet or wager
is initiated, received, or otherwise made.” The
bill contains an exemption for “any lawful transaction
with a business licensed or authorized by
the state,” which would seem to exclude
horseracing from its provisions. If you feel comfortable
for the moment with this, relax and enjoy.
But keep your left up.
DRAZIN NOT IN....NOT YET
Thoroughbred horsemen in New Jersey, who had
hoped to see their legal counsel Dick Drazin as
chairman of the New Jersey Racing Commission
after a Senate vote yesterday, will have to wait for
another day. The Senate rejected S1038, which
would have put two thoroughbred horsemen and
two harness horsemen on the nine-member board,
by one vote, 20-10. Twenty-one votes were necessary
for passage. Gov. James McGreevey, who
had been counted on to support the measure, was
occupied elsewhere, awkwardly standing by as a
tearful Robert Toricelli pulled out of the New Jersey
Senate race as a result of indiscretions that
brought him rebuke in the Senate during the summer.
State senator Richard Codey, the leading
New Jersey legislator on racing matters, is a
vigorous opponent of the bill, feeling that
it is a conflict of interest for horsemen to
write the rules under which they must race.
October 2, 2002
MGM ON LINE IN ISLE OF MAN
While Frank Fahrenkopf walks a tightrope looking
both ways in Janus-like fashion on the issue of
Internet betting as head of the American Gaming
Association, one of his biggest members has
charged ahead, inaugurating online gambling this
week from the Isle of Man. MGM Mirage announced
it was operational yesterday with
www.playmgnmirage.com and expects to be fully
launched by the middle of the month, and will be
taking bets from the United Kingdom, Ireland,
South Africa and other countries. The U.S. is not
one of them, but Bill Hornbuckle, MGM Online
president who spoke at the HTA-USTA Harness
Racing Congress at the Mirage last spring, says
this is “the real thing, real Las Vegas games.” He
said that fact would be the differentiator between
other products out there and what MGM Mirage
will be offering. Hornbuckle said the company was
in the Isle of Man “to protect the company and
the credibility of the MGM brand.” He said the
company had a weighted and layered system that
queries data service providers and databases and
funnels problem answers toward manual verification,
and that MGM Mirage was taking the position
that “you’re guilty until proven innocent” on
proving legal status to gamble on their system. The
system, viewed but not yet approved by Nevada
regulators -- although Frank Fahrenkopf mistakenly
said it was -- offers bettors the equivalent of
a slot player’s card, with play points tabulated toward
redemption for credits including trips to the
company’s Las Vegas resorts. Hornbuckle told
the Las Vegas Review Journal that MGM Mirage
hopes to be able to market the site to 100 million
potential users in countries where it is legal to take
such bets, but that it is far too early to project how
much revenue the site will generate, how much market
share it will capture or when it will begin turning
a profit.