Important Note for our Illinois Account Holders

We regret to inform you that the Illinois Racing Board has requested that all online wagering providers cease accepting wagers from residents of Illinois. Effective Friday, January 18, our Illinois customers will not be permitted to wager at Xpressbet.com until further notice.

We apologize for the inconvenience this presents and will keep you updated on any progress towards a resolution. We look forward to once again serving your account wagering needs once this situation has been resolved.

Your account will remain active and you will have full access to live video, Pro Shop products, race information, race replays, free daily picks, as well as deposits, withdrawals, and account information.

If you are interested in wagering at Hawthorne Race Course or one of their Hawthorne Race Course Off-Track-Betting (OTB) locations, please follow the link below.

http://www.hawthorneracecourse.com/otb/index.php

Thank you for your understanding and for choosing Xpressbet as your account wagering provider.

Sincerely,

The Xpressbet Team

That makes no sense. I thought the state was broke and everyone was desperate for new revenue streams? Why not maintain the ones you have?

Illinois House backs online horse betting plan
By Mike Riopell

SPRINGFIELD — A push to once again allow Illinoisans to bet on horses online continues to advance after the Illinois House on Sunday approved the proposal.

Arlington International Racecourse officials are among the horse racing industry advocates wanting to give gamblers back their online betting abilities after the rules allowing it expired at the beginning of the year.

After a 90-18 vote in the House, the legislation now moves to the state Senate.

The proposal also would send more than $23 million in casino revenues to the racing industry. More than $109 million has accumulated in a fund for the industry over the years, but it's not been paid out because of a dispute over the law.

The rest of the money will go toward school construction throughout the state. That the racing industry won't get the full amount it was promised irked state Rep. David Harris, an Arlington Heights Republican.

“When you make a deal with the state, they ought to uphold the deal,” Harris said.

Lawmakers on the other side, however, argued the industry would get nothing without the legislation. Arlington leaders have backed it.

The plan also would let two companies that took bets from Illinois gamblers even after the law expired — one owned by Arlington owner Churchill Downs — pay taxes on their revenues and otherwise avoid punishment.

HORSE RACING
Spat threatens tracks’ future
Racing calendar in Illinois remains uncertain for 2014

By Neil Milbert Special to the Tribune

Perched precariously on the edge of a fiscal cliff, the Illinois Racing Board will hold its monthly meeting Tuesday with everyone in the room still in the dark about what the 2014 racing calendar will look like.

“Thousands of horsemen are unable to plan for their future,” Illinois Harness Horsemen’s Association President Dave McCaffrey said.

“There are people’s lives at stake here — working men and women supporting families.”

The Racing Board is dependent on Advance Deposit Wagering revenue for funding to perform its regulatory responsibilities, but this month’s veto session of the General Assembly ended without the lawmakers taking any action on this mechanism for betting on Illinois races on the Internet.

The current ADW law expires Jan. 31. In the interim, there are only two brief opportunities on the legislative docket for the statute to be renewed or rewritten — if the legislators reconvene in early December to try to resolve the pension crisis and on Jan. 29 when they will return for one day.

Lawmakers also have discussed returning in early January to vote on moving up the date that gay marriage is allowed in Illinois, but that is not scheduled as of now.

In awarding 2014 dates in September, the Racing Board did something unprecedented.

It drafted four schedules based on when ADW legislation is enacted and if an additional $725,000 in supplemental funding is appropriated for the fiscal year that will end June 30.

The board’s first option

— a replica of this year’s thoroughbred and harness dates — is dependent on ADW being renewed before Jan. 31 and the supplemental funding being awarded.

The worst case is that neither will happen by Jan. 31, forcing the board to go to the fourth option and cut the schedule.

There would be no harness racing at Maywood Park and its sister harness track, Balmoral Park, would be limited to 13 days, July 5-Sept. 27.

On the thoroughbred side, Arlington International Racecourse would have 49 programs, May 1-Aug. 20; Hawthorne would have 15, Aug. 21-Sept. 20; and Fairmount Park in Collinsville would have 10, April 29-May 31.

“The legislators are telling us that we in racing have to get our acts together and come up with a solution,” Maywood President Duke Johnston said. “They’re saying that if we (the racetracks, horsemen and ADW providers) reach an agreement on what should be in an extension bill, they’ll pass it.”

But at the veto session there was a conflict instead of a consensus.

The conflict pitted the Churchill Downs, Inc. subsidiaries, Arlington and its Internet provider, Twin-spires, against all of the Illinois entities: Maywood/ Balmoral, Hawthorne, Fairmount, the Illinois Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association, the Illinois Harness Horsemen’s Association and the Illinois Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association.

Hawthorne’s ADW provider, Xpressbet, and Fair-mount’s provider, TVG, are siding with Arlington/ Twinspires, while BetZotic, which is under the Maywood/Balmoral umbrella, is backing the bill supported by the Illinois coalition.

The main element in the Illinois bloc’s proposal is a 0.9 percent surcharge on every bet placed through an ADW provider.

Arlington/Twinspires wants to increase by .135 percent the pari-mutuel tax on wagers placed at the tracks and off-track betting locations and through ADW online betting.

I was thinking more for the info/research etc not to place the bet. Thanks. Seems when I go there I can bet all over the country including Maywood.

...will impose a temporary surcharge on winning wagers placed through ADW and at tracks, OTBs, and inter-track wagering facilities...

OK, this won't affect me too much

well maybe I finally get the night racing at Arlington I have been asking for.

JORR why no night racing? Yes, I know they will need lights

Harness racing is really becoming an embarrassment in this state. I won't even get into the weekly purses for a standard mid-week card at Maywood or Balmoral. But those American National purses and the Windy City Pace purse were a fucking a joke. I can remember being a kid and the Windy City Pace was a $350,000 race. And even that didn't always bring in the top three year olds. I was honestly shocked Illinois managed to pull all those top horses here for such shitty money.

I thought he had a real shot, but Oosting gave him a curious steer. He needed to sit on the fence and hope for the best.

.

It seems like the favorites win more often than not with harness. I usually stay away from it.

Or I'll bet any horse that has "Fox Valley" in the name.

At three he sort of put it together and won a few races at Balmoral. Danny Knox was his regular driver. This wasn't long before he killed himself in Melrose Park. R.I.P. Big Stick.