Unlawful Internet Gaming & AL Capone; What’s Wrong with Horse Racing
How to beat gambling Al Capones
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By Louis Freeh and Tom Ridge – thehill.com
Al Capone famously said that Prohibition caused nothing but trouble. Although he himself caused much of it, he did have a point.
The Volstead Act, which banned alcohol, was well-intentioned but included ambiguities that tripped up average Americans, challenged law enforcement and limited states’ powers. A House hearing on Oct. 25 offers a chance to learn from the sobering lessons of that experience.
The 21st-century version of the Volstead Act is the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006, which is intended to prohibit Internet gambling. As members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee will hear, UIGEA mirrors Volstead’s mistakes: ambiguity about what constitutes “illegal gambling,” making financial institutions the implementers rather than law enforcement and limiting states’ authorities.
We have gone by many titles during our respective careers — judge and FBI director, governor and secretary of Homeland Security. With those experiences and perspectives in mind, we have joined a new effort, Fair Play USA, to tackle the growing problem of illegal Internet gambling, to help better define what is permissible and identify the appropriate tools and rules to help federal, state and local agencies to enforce the law.
Although the law prohibits Internet gambling, it is estimated that Americans spend more than $6 billion every year on this thriving bootleg industry. Like the rum runners of old, recipients of these billions are shady foreign operators running an estimated 1,700 offshore sites beyond the reach of U.S. law enforcement.
This environment offers no controls to prevent money laundering by organized crime, protect players from rigged games or financial fraud, prohibit minors from playing or to facilitate collecting tax revenue. The existing, well-intentioned legislation has simply not been able to prevent this activity online.
The solution is to provide law enforcement better tools to combat illegal operators, ban the vast majority of Internet gambling and protect consumers by establishing a strict regulatory framework for online poker, re-establishing the rights of states and tribes to accept or prohibit online poker as they see fit.
Improving law enforcement tools starts with clearly defining “illegal gambling” and empowering proper federal and state authorities to enforce the law, rather than banks. These unambiguous crimes would help law enforcement agencies successfully prosecute the operators of rogue sites.
While the law already clearly prohibits betting on sports and casino games, it is unclear on a game of skill like poker, which millions of Americans already play with family and friends or just to have fun. Establishing a strict regulatory framework for licensing and enforcement of online poker could provide a safe, legal environment for this activity to continue.
This regulatory framework should mandate the use of effective consumer protection technology to ensure games are fair, honest and played only by adults. Age-verification technology used to limit online alcohol purchases by minors could be used to prevent underage online poker play.
The rights of states and tribes must be protected also by authorizing them to accept or prohibit online poker and mandating the use of sophisticated tools to block access in prohibited areas. Major League Baseball, for example, uses geo-location tools to prevent visitors to MLB.com from accessing content from blacked-out locations.
This regulatory regime would allow states to capture much-needed revenue from legal U.S.-based entertainment companies providing online poker, rather than lose it to offshore sites as under current law.
In 1933, Congress finally acted to update the law and end the anarchy of Prohibition by passing the 21st Amendment, with Pennsylvania casting the deciding vote to ratify it. Consumers, law enforcement and state authorities once again should have the clear advantage over illegal offshore operators who exploit loopholes and can siphon illicit billions.
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Hartley Henderson
Rick Dutrow Exemplifies Much of What is Wrong with Horse Racing
By Hartley Henderson – Exclusive to OSGA – read more from Hartley and other knowledgeable writers at www.osga.com. They are there to help protect your gaming rights. Please visit their website and learn more.
Around 2 decades ago I took my wife to Woodbine Racetrack in Toronto to see the Canadian International horse race. The field featured some of the best runners in the world including Izvestia, a Canadian horse that won the Canadian Triple Crown the year before. My goal was to get her interested in one of my passions. Izvestia broke poorly in the race and then pulled up with a broken leg. The image of seeing the poor horse struggling to stand up and then being loaded onto the van after being shielded from the fans with a sheet was too much for my wife who said to me “don’t you ever ask me to go to one of these races again.” In a brief moment Woodbine lost a potential fan and supporter and no doubt many others in the stands felt the same way as my wife. As someone who frequented horse races I realized the incident, while tragic, was a reality of the sport. At the same time, breakdowns in major races were fairly rare. Two decades later those rare occurrences seem all too frequent. In 2008 Eight Belles had the potential to really attract women to the sport after she made a courageous run in the Kentucky Derby but when she collapsed after finishing second in the race those hopes were smashed. Eight Belles broke 2 bones in both her ankles and was put down immediately. An investigation after the race blamed the breeders, the jockey and the trainer. Without going into great detail the committee effectively ruled that Eight Belles had run too fast for her frame and there was speculation of drug use. Two years prior Barbaro won the Kentucky Derby and drew a huge crowd of fans including young children but in the Preakness Barbaro suffered the exact same fate as Eight Belles and had to be put down. While no one was blamed for his injuries many speculated that Barbaro ran the Preakness injured and no one wanted to scratch him because the purse was just too large. And even when horses don’t die on the track they often get retired far too early. Smarty Jones and Big Brown, to name just a couple never even had the chance to complete their 3 year old campaign before being retired to stud and hundreds if not thousands of other horses have to be retired due to injury after barely getting on the race track.
In April of this year horse trainer Rick Dutrow was denied a license by the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission’s licensing review board citing numerous violations of its rules and on October 12th the New York State Racing and Wagering Board suspended Dutrow for ten years. Dutrow is appealing the sentence but it’s unlikely the NYRB will be sympathetic and it’s almost certain that most other states, if not all, will follow suit once Dutrow’s appeal is denied.
Dutrow may be best known as the trainer of Big Brown and Saint Liam but his record speaks for itself. Dutrow has recorded 53 stakes wins in his career including 3 Breeder’s Cups and a Kentucky Derby. As well he was the leading trainer in the state in 2001, 2003 and 2005. But it seems that in order to gain that success Dutrow chose to break numerous rules. When Kentucky refused to license Dutrow they charged him with “conduct against the best interests of racing.” They highlighted numerous offenses including hiding workouts but the most damning was his misuse of medications on horses. In particular Dutrow overmedicated his horses with lasix and bute plus he was found with syringes full of xylazine. Bute is an anti inflammatory medication that masks pain, lasix is an anti-bleeding diuretic and xylazine is a sedative. In better words, the boards believe that one reason Dutrow’s horses were able to do so well, is that he raced them under conditions that put them at risk. If horses can’t feel pain when they run then they could exacerbate an injury leading to the horse being put down. And if a horse is a bleeder it could cause medical issues later as well. Lasix is pretty much allowed in every jurisdiction and 90% of horses in North America run on lasix. The Horsemen Benevolent and Protective Association has urged tracks to disallow the use of lasix on race day and the Breeder’s Cup announced that starting next year it will ban the use of lasix on any 2 year old races on Breeder’s Cup day. And in 2013 it will disallow the use in all races. Much of this was predicated by the British Horse Racing Authority who argued that North American racing were pariahs not caring for the welfare of horses by allowing the use of both lasix and bute on race day. They argue that if a horse is a bleeder the best option for the welfare of the horse is to give it a month’s rest, not medicate it and send it back on the track. And if a horse is injured and requires bute it should be on the sidelines.
Dutrow epitomizes everything that’s wrong with the sport today. In its infancy horse racing dealt with many seedy sorts who were only interested in the money to be won from the sport but over the years trainers, owners and breeders began to view the horses as more than commodities and began to treat them with respect and care. Consequently horse welfare has become of paramount importance. Any trainers, owners or other horsemen who treat horses cruelly are seen as outcasts. In today’s environment that’s absolutely critical. Groups like PETA and the HBPA try to ensure that all animals are treated well and today’s young folk, whom the industry are desperately trying to attract won’t get involved in any industry that treats animals poorly. Unfortunately it appears that Dutrow is one of those outcasts. Dutrow overused medications to ensure that the horses would run even if unfit. The absolute maximum amount of bute that a track will allow is 5 u/ml and most have dropped it to 2 u/ml. Dutrow was found to exceed that level on numerous occasions. The problem with that is that horses can appear healthy when in reality they are hurt. Track veterinarians are at the gate in every horse race ensuring the horses are fit and if there is a problem they will be scratched by the veterinarians at the gate. But trainers like Dutrow, by masking injuries through over medication, have taken away the ability for veterinarians to identify horses at risk. Consequently the number of catastrophic injuries has grown dramatically. Racetracks have tried to address the issue of injury by putting in safer synthetic tracks, more lush turf courses and rules to protect the horses and jockeys but they can’t do anything about trainers or other horsemen that try to break those rules.
Another concern with Dutrow’s actions is that it is effectively cheating. Betting on horse racing keeps the industry viable and gamblers have illustrated many times that they have no interest if they perceive they are not wagering on a level playing field. Standardbred racing never really took off because most patrons perceived it as a rigged product. When horses break stride for no apparent reason or when 1/9 favorites show no interest in the race, as happens often with standardbred racing, it dissuades bettors. In fact it’s not unusual to see a notation in a program at a smaller standardbred track saying that a driver is suspended for a few days for “not trying in a race.” Obviously Dutrow’s actions aren’t as blatant but it’s cheating nonetheless. When bettors handicap a race and put their money down they expect that all horses are running on an even playing field and that all medications are listed. Until recently lasix was disallowed in many states including New York but now it is allowed although the horse has an “L” next to his name to let bettors know that the horse is on lasix. The few states that allow bute to be used list the horse with a “B” next to his name in the program. But if the horse is over medicated, if other illegal substances are used or if the trainer runs the horse without informing the race track of what substances he’s using then it’s cheating to affect the odds no more and no less. And if that type of cheating happens too often bettors will turn away. The NBA which saw a huge drop in wagering after the Ted Donaghy scandal and Absolute Poker which saw a drop in players after the POTRIPPER scandal can attest to that.
Naturally there are other factors to explain the downturn in horse racing in the U.S. including urbanization, competition from other gambling sources, signal legalities, lack of leisure time and the high take out at the racetracks but horse welfare and cheating are predominant reasons for the steady decline. The horse racing industry has done a good job addressing it by putting down synthetic tracks as previously mentioned; creating organizations to stop the slaughter of unproductive horses; and banning the use of anabolic steroids; but they need to do more. Horse racing is not only a means for betting but it’s also a form of entertainment. If one just wants to gamble they can go to a casino but for most track patrons a day at the track also constitutes some leisure time and equate it to going to a movie. Unfortunately when horses break down or when major stakes are fielded by no name horses because the better ones are injured it takes away from the enjoyment of the sport and patrons look for a better way to spend their entertainment dollars.
The banning of Rick Dutrow was a good start to getting rid of the riff raff that is rampant in the industry. But Dutrow is just one of hundreds of bad apples. The industry needs to consolidate the various racing commissions and come up with a standard set of rules. They need better leadership and watchdogs to keep a look out for the bad apples. And like with Dutrow, when horsemen are found to be breaking the rules to the detriment of the horses, they need to be tossed out. Only then will fans consider returning to the tracks.
Contact Hartley via email at Hartley www.osga.com.
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