From CHRB
ARCADIA, Calif. (Feb. 22, 2019) – The California Horse Racing Board conducted its regular meeting Thursday, February 21, at Santa Anita Park. Chairman Chuck Winner presided. Vice Chair Madeline Auerbach and Commissioners Dennis Alfieri, Fred Maas, Debra Reed-Klages, and Alex Solis also were in attendance.
The audio of this entire Board meeting is available on the CHRB Website (www.chrb.ca.gov) under the Webcast link. In brief:.
· Almost the entirety of the meeting was devoted to discussions of license renewal applications submitted by seven Advance Deposit Wagering (ADW) companies authorized to offer account wagering to California bettors, provided they meet other statutory requirements. The seven ADWs are NYRABets, Game Play Network, Lien Games Racing, Twinspires/BetAmerica, Watch and Wager, XpressBet, and TVG.
A special committee of the Board met privately and individually Wednesday with representatives of these seven ADW companies to review confidential financial data provided by each. Those financial reports and candid conversations with the representatives provided the committee members – Chairman Winner and Commissioner Maas – and CHRB executives with fairly clear understandings of the scopes of their operations in California.
Those same representatives gave brief presentations Thursday to the entire Board as each of their applications was considered. Chairman Winner and others urged but did not require the ADWs to go beyond statutory requirements for licensing by helping California charities, as some have been doing all along. And the few that currently impose account maintenance fees on dormant accounts were encouraged to cease that practice and do everything in their power to contact and remind account holders of any unused balances. The commissioners determined that all of the license applications were in order and approved each through the end of 2020.
· The Board approved the license renewal for Striders Sports Bar, Grill, and Race Lounge in San Diego to offer wagering on horse racing to its customers. Striders is one of 12 restaurants, sports bars, card clubs and other businesses licensed to operate as mini-satellites in California, along with 24 more traditional wagering outlets at racetracks, fairs, and Indian casinos.
· The Board approved the license renewal for the Commerce Casino to offer wagering on horse racing to its customers. Commerce Casino has the highest wagering volume of the dozen mini-satellites and handled nearly $22 million in the last fiscal year.
· The Board authorized Golden Gate Fields to distribute $40,585 in race day charity proceeds from all of its 2018 meets to nine beneficiaries.
· Executive Director Rick Baedeker reported there were 3,193 drug tests on horses in November, December, and January, most of those (2,350) on traditional post-race urine samples. Other testing was done on hair samples (130) and samples from out-of-competition horses (385).