A big step in the right direction for companies like UBET:
CALIFORNIA OKAYS INTERNET HORSE RACE BETTING !
dailynews.yahoo.com
Tuesday August 14 1:52 PM ET
California OKs Internet Betting on Horse Races
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (Reuters) - California Gov. Gray Davis (news - web sites) has signed a bill allowing people to bet on California horses races over the telephone or via the Internet, a move that could dramatically expand the number of people wagering on races.
Davis, who vetoed a similar bill last year as an unacceptable expansion of gambling, approved the new law following a change in federal law and a positive recommendation from the state attorney general, aides said on Tuesday.
``The governor felt comfortable that this was not an expansion of gambling,'' Davis spokesman Roger Salazar said Tuesday.
Davis, who signed the bill on Monday, said he was also persuaded that the current bill contained sufficient provisions to prevent minors from making bets.
The so-called ``advance deposit'' wagers will allow people to create accounts and deposit funds which can then be used for bets made on the phone or Internet.
The new system, which goes into effect on Jan. 1, will dramatically expand the pool of people who can gamble on horse races, now limited to those who place their bets at race tracks, betting pavilions at state fairs or Indian casinos.
Davis, who approved a deal with California's Indian tribes in 1999 allowing them to conduct Nevada-style gaming on their lands, has said he opposes further expansion of gambling in California.
Opponents of the new bill say it will effectively wire the entire state for gambling, allowing people to make racing bets from any phone or computer station with Internet access.
California's horse racing industry estimates it loses as much as $250 million annually to the more than hundreds of out-of-state gambling sites on the Internet, telephone betting systems and the 10 other states that already allow Internet or advance deposit wagering.
The bill Davis signed also gave workers who care for race horses the right to unionize. |
