Track may close over OTB payments

Golden Gate Fields in Northern California has alerted its horsemen that the track may close if regulators do not allow the establishment of accountwagering “cafes” and for the track to stop sending its simulcast signal to offtrack betting outlets in the state, according to the chief operating officer of the track’s owner, The Stronach Group.

Tim Ritvo, the top racing executive for The Stronach Group, said that horsemen would be notified of the track’s position during a meeting Thursday morning at Golden Gate, one week prior to a scheduled California Horse Racing Board meeting on June 21 in which Golden Gate’s Aug. 22Oct. 2 race meet application will be considered.

Ritvo contended that racetracks in the state are subsidizing bricks-and-mortar OTBs in Northern California that operate as a consortium known as Northern California Off Track Wagering Inc., or NOTWINC, because of high statutorily required payments to the owners of the outlets. Those owners’ operations are mostly located on the Northern California fair circuit.

“This is unsustainable,” Ritvo said. “It’s been unsustainable for 10 years. And we can’t keep doing it.”

Ritvo said that The Stronach Group does not want to close the track, but he said the CHRB may not approve the track’s upcoming application because of a difference in opinion on whether Golden Gate is required to send its signal to the NOTWINC outlets. Earlier this year, The Stronach Group indicated on its application for the meet that it had no intention of sending its signal to the outlets.

Ritvo said that Golden Gate would much rather establish up to 50 or 60 “cafes” in which people could place bets that would be treated as account wagers, which provide far more of the wagering dollar to tracks than bets made at OTBs. The Stronach Group owns and operates its own account-wagering company, XpressBet.

Rick Baedeker, executive director of the CHRB, said Thursday that the board’s legal staff has determined that Golden Gate is required to have a “satellite network” in place to run a live race meet. He said the legal staff is prepared to present that opinion at the meeting next week, but that board members are free to make their own decision on the Golden Gate application. Baedeker also said that he had contacted two fair locations in the previous week to ask them to prepare responses to commissioners who may want to explore whether the locations can pick up the Golden Gate dates if the track does not accept the conditions that may be attached to the approval of its race application.

“We have a scenario in front of us that is not one we have imagined, it’s one that people are talking about and that people tell us is likely, that Golden Gate will not agree to amend their license application” to contract with the OTB sites, Baedeker said.

In a statement, the Thoroughbred Owners of California said that it was opposed to Golden Gate cutting out the Northern California satellite locations, though it acknowledged that California racing has “underlying structural and economic issues” that need to be addressed.