Not again?
From
http://eeditionmobile.chicagotribune.co ... id=Ar05201Quote:
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.