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By Wandering Eyes · Posted
Historical Horse Race (HHR) gambling is not explicitly legal in Florida. But on Oct. 28, an online sportsbook in that state run by the Seminole Tribe quietly rolled out an offshoot of it that, like versions of HHR that are purse-producing economic engines in states like Kentucky and Arkansas, mimics the look and feel of slot-machine play while generating payouts based on the results of archived races. Except in this new suite of betting opportunities, the results that drive the gameplay don't come from a library of past Thoroughbred races. Instead, they are derived from motor sports. This mutant HHR platform that soft-launched to a select group of Florida Hard Rock Bet customers in partnership with the Tribe has received scant, if any, attention within the horse racing industry. The much larger gambling universe has been quicker to take notice, although in the first two weeks of the product's existence, there is not yet broad consensus on whether the concept is boldly innovative, an existential threat, or, perhaps, both at once. This Florida-only, phone-app interface of 21 different technically-not-slots games, with titles like Sahara Riches Megaways Collect 'Em, further stands out because it is an online betting platform in a state where internet casino gambling is also not expressly permitted by statute. So despite the apparent lack of enabling legislation for both HHR and online casino betting, how does the system known as Games Powered by Past Motor Races legally operate in Florida? Stephen A. Crystal, who has three decades of experience with emerging markets and innovation in the gambling sector, is the founder of SCCG Management, a global industry advisory firm. He was among the first write about the rollout of Games, barely 48 hours after the product launched, and in an Oct. 30 analysis posted on his firm's website, Crystal described the Tribe's legal posture as “clever, narrow, and likely to be tested.” Crystal noted that while online casino games are currently not legal in Florida, online sports betting is, and the Tribe's 2021 gambling compact with the state granted the Tribe exclusive sports betting rights in Florida for 30 years. “Florida is a special regulatory case,” Crystal wrote. “The Seminole Tribe's 2021 compact with the state formalized exclusive online sports betting under a 'hub-and-spoke' model, with mobile wagers deemed to occur on Tribal land where the servers sit. That structure created a lane for wagers linked to sporting events–live or historical–while keeping full-fledged online casino play out of scope for the broader market. “Hard Rock's new motor-races product appears to drive right down that lane,” Crystal wrote. “It's conceptually similar to HHR machines, which also rely on archived results, but it's built within a different legal silo and with motor racing as the data set,” “Compared to HHR, there are meaningful distinctions,” Crystal wrote. “HHR frameworks are typically anchored in pari-mutuel law and tied to horse-racing statutes or racetrack venues….Hard Rock's Florida play sits within a tribal compact sports-betting regime and uses motor-racing archives instead. Same family tree (historical outcomes), different branches (legal authority, sport, and user experience).” Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino | Getty Images Crystal continued: “Legally, the product's argument is straightforward: wagers are placed on the results of real sporting events–albeit past ones–permitted under the compact's sports-betting authority. The animations and slot-style packaging are 'entertaining depictions,' not the bet itself. If the Florida Gaming Control Commission and the courts accept that framing, Hard Rock's offering stands as a compliant sports-betting product. If they focus on functional resemblance to online slots rather than the underlying mechanics, expect scrutiny.” In Florida, this new online betting interface will mean direct competition to brick-and-mortar slots at the eight licensed pari-mutuel facilities located in Miami-Dade or Broward Counties (Gulfstream Park is one of them) and on certain Tribal lands. What happens in Florida with Games will, of course, be closely monitored across the country. “On a national stage, it gives other compact- or license-holders a playbook to study for jurisdictions where iCasino is blocked but sports betting is live,” Crystal wrote. Crystal summed up: “Will others copy it? That depends on whether their enabling law or compact has room for 'wagers on past events,' whether their regulators buy the distinction, and whether local politics tolerate a slot-style feel without formally expanding iCasino. “If Florida regulators bless this at scale and consumer metrics are strong, expect creative riffs: different sports archives, new user-interface presentations, and varied bet-construction mechanics to diversify the game catalog,” Crystal wrote. The “different sports archives” angle might end up being a pathway for future gambling app developers to mine vast archives of non-branded sports results. The non-branded aspect is key, because unlike in HHR (where horsemen get a cut of revenue in exchange for allowing past race results to pari-mutuelly power the game output), the gambling companies won't have to pay a cent back to anyone if they instead use (for example) decades of baseball scores from defunct minor leagues or the results of the thousands upon thousands of road races for recreational runners that are conducted in America every year. Very soon, it might not really matter where the sports-related data comes from. So long as the gameplay makes it clear that the probabilities reflect historical data from some previous, real athletic event and aren't driven by some form of random-number generation, the gambling companies will (in theory) be able to claim they are on the sports betting side of the law and not operating as casinos. What the Seminoles and Hard Rock are doing in Florida is already making waves in the gambling sector. Jay Snowden, PENN Entertainment | PENN WEB Last Thursday, in a quarterly earnings call with investors, Jay Snowden, the chief executive officer and president of PENN Entertainment, which has 10 Thoroughbred and Standardbred tracks among many other forms of casino and sports gambling in its corporate portfolio, was already thinking what might happen in the near future if quasi-casino online betting were to meet up with the existing threat of prediction markets (in which users trade shares in the outcomes of future events directly with each other instead of betting against the house with sportsbooks or via pari-mutuel entities, which both rake off higher margins and generally offer less generous odds). “So now you're talking about past motor races and sports betting, but it's spinning a slot machine,” Snowden said Nov. 6. “HHR has been done in the land-based businesses. Let's be very clear about this: I would be shocked if prediction market operators, as they're raising money at significant valuations and seem to be doubling every few months, aren't talking about this. “And if you can move forward with prediction markets and sports gambling, what would stop you from offering prediction markets and contracts on the next spin of a slot machine, the next hand of blackjack, the next spin of the ball for a roulette table?” Snowden said. “So this is existential. Like we're going to be talking about this, I think, in a matter of months, not years,” Snowden said. The post The Week in Review: Offshoot Of HHR In Florida Opens A Pandora’s Box For Entire Gambling Sector appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions. View the full article -
I see mr wood from cambridge is again suggesting things are not good at the cambridge harness club,on the other channel. lets just remember ,it is david branch from cambridge, who the nz harness media would have us believe is the leading nz club ceo/administrator. I mean ask yourself this,we hardly ever hear the names come out of the mouths of the nz harness media,of those that run the clubs in canterbury and elsewhere that return profits,yet they are always promoting the likes of david branch and j mckinnon as being the smart ones. So it appears the 2 people who run the clubs with the self inflicted worst financial states in nz,are who the nz harness media continue to say they are the smartest ones we've got in nz. it just makes no sense and is what i have always said,the nz harness media lack credilbilty when it comes to discussing some of these sensitive subjects. simply put,don't trust what you hear . And lets remember it is brad steele who has thrown his full weight behind the running of the slot races at cambridge,illustrating this with his many press releases on how important they are. He must have known that they had resulted in cambridge digging an even bigger hole financially for themselves ,as he would have had 3 years of the state of finances to analysis and knew hrnz had already had to significantly bail out the cambridge club previously. why does hrnz like throwing money into financial holes without and direction to change those clubs finances. i don't know,it just seems they know the truth is bad,so to hide the truth they talk things up to make things look better than they really are,then they box themselves into a corner and can't let the truth come out because everyone is going to recognise that their previous narratives are false and that what they say can't be trusted. Thats about where we are at i think at the moment. But back to what mr wood had inferred about cambridge. well very obviously its not well run financially. apparently they can't even get right simple things like running the sportbar they took over. Mr wood saying on saturday,he went into the tab in that bar,10 minutes before the first race at riccarton and he couldn't depost any money as they hadn't even logged on the machine to allow him to do that,despite 3 staff being there and next to no patrons. then he pointed out the lack of promotion for the drivers champs they had on course this week. then there had been when cambridge incurred $50,000 in extra debt eariler this year fighting cambridge raceways ceo,david branch's suitabilty for a managers certificate and the police ,licensing inspectors and the medical officer of health had all opposed the granting of a liqure licenses to allow this years grins meeting to proceed. they had objected because of the unruly behavior of patrons on course the previous year. in the end it obviously was allowed to proceed and in the end the police withdraw any objections to branchs application for a managers certificate.. Branch said he thought the police had unfairly interpreted the law as to who to blame for patrons unruly behavior. but $50,000 more debt for a club already in heavy debt. is that the sign of a club that things are running well. Is not promoting the world drivers champs a sign. Is not running the sports bar properly a sign. anyways,of more importance is i like mr woods horse that he has in the nz galloping cup later this week. I think its place price of almost $4 seems very nice myself. -
By Wandering Eyes · Posted
Via Sistina produced a dominant display to score a remarkable 12th triumph at the highest level when successfully defending her crown in the Champions Stakes (G1) Nov. 8 on a wet, windy and unseasonably cold day at Flemington. View the full article -
By Wandering Eyes · Posted
Spendthrift Farm's general manager Ned Toffey confirmed Nov. 9 that multiple grade 1 winner Kopion has been retired.View the full article
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