New Illinois Board rule limits ADW access for IL players

[analyizethis]

Originally Posted by Cannon Shell

http://www.drf.com/news/article/114833.html


The Illinois Racing Board approved the cap in January as a way to protect the amount of revenue from account wagering that flows to Illinois horsemen and racetracks. Although many racetracks and horsemen objected to the cap, the rule went into effect after a 45-day comment period in which many racing industry officials said they would support the cap only if it were raised above the current market rate for premium signals.

So the horsemen basically agreed to a cap as long as it wasn’t set low enough to really impact pricing (so therefore was no cap at all). Now that a real cap was imposed what consequences do they anticipate and what actions do the horsemen plan to take?

As I said this morning on the radio, attempting to protect local product by putting restrictions on imported product does not work. (I misspoke this morning and should have referred to the “Smoot Hawley Act of 1930”)

Names , titles and some contact information of the powers that be are listed below:

ILLINOIS RACING BOARD

Chairman Joseph Sinopoli of Glen Ellyn, Angelo Ciambrone of Chicago Heights, William Farley Jr. of Oak Park, Tim Martin of Wheaton, Jon Metcalf of Indian Head Park, Allan Monat of Northbrook, Michael Murphy of Normal, Paul Smith of Plainfield and Robert C. Winchester of Rosiclare are the board Members. Officers are; Executive Director; Marc Laino (marc.laino@illinois.gov), Board Counsel Jennifer LaDuke (Jennifer.laduke@illinois.gov), General Counsel Shelly Kalita (shelly.kalita@illinois.gov) and Project Manager Mickey Ezzo (mickey.ezzo@illinois.gov).

The offices of the Illinois Racing Commission are located at the James R. Thompson Center 100 West Randolph Street, Chicago, Illinois 60601. The phone and fax numbers are (312) 814 – 2600 and (312) 814 – 5062 respectively.

The minutes of the January 26, 2010 meeting of the board reflect the following comment: “Commissioner Ciambrone moved to approve an interstate commission rate cap of 5%. An interstate commission fee is the fee a racetrack in another state charges an advance deposit wagering licensee to broadcast and accept wagers on its signal. Commissioner Smith seconded the motion. The Board approved the motion unanimously by voice vote. President Roy Arnold appeared on behalf of Arlington Park. John Johnston, John Walsh and Tony Somone appeared on behalf of Balmoral Park, Maywood Park, Hawthorne Race Course and the IHHA. Michael Campbell and Glen Berman appeared on behalf of the ITHA. Scott Duarty and Patrick Troutman appeared on behalf of TrackNet.” I don't know if this is a complete list of attendees but I see no memebrs of the media or representatives of HANA.

I would suggest that any interested parties contact any and all of the individuals named above. I will continue to hunt for more specific email addresses or phone numbers and post such information as found to assist in that effort.

The next meeting is scheduled for July 27, 2010 at 9:00 am in the downtown Chicago offices. Meetings are open to the public and as of right now I plan to attend.

The agency’s web site is http://www.state.il.us/agency/irb/default.htm and on that web site are FOIA (Freedom Of Information Act) forms, minutes of meetings and a variety of other pieces of information.