racing_news/

ARF explores concrete ways to protect racing revenues from illegal operators
24/05/05

Ways to deal with the omnipresent threat of unlimited, unregulated and uncontrolled (3U) wagering on horseracing formed the principal message at Tuesday’s business sessions at the 30th Asian Racing Conference in Seoul.

Mr Lawrence T Wong, Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Jockey Club (HKJC) and Chairman of the Asian Racing Federation (ARF), called for government support for betting tax reform and stronger legal protection to make horseracing more competitive against illegal and unauthorised operators.

“Only with such government backing can we continue to generate tax and provide community support,” Mr Wong said.

Mr Wong also praised the successful united front by ARF members in adopting the Good Neighbour Policy where the use of racing data or images for wagering purposes is only allowed with the express consent of the organisation staging the events and/or the relevant rights holders.

Opening the day’s business, Mr Bob Charley, Vice Chairman of the ARF, described the free-riding, unlicensed betting operators as “the scourge of our age” and betting exchanges came in for particular criticism.

Mr Peter Fletcher of Tabcorp, Australia’s leading Tote operator, described the UK’s legalisation of the exchanges as “the worst mistake in the history of international racing administration.”

The second worst mistake, he said, “was not to admit that they had made a mistake in the first place.”

“Betting exchanges fail the test in terms of integrity and fail the test in terms of funding the sport. They will not enhance racing,” Mr Fletcher added, drawing spontaneous applause from the large attendance.

Mr Peter V’Landys, the Chief Executive of Racing New South Wales, also issued a broadside to the exchanges in terms of how racing is funded.

V’Landys said the exchanges had offered only A$0.27 cents of funding compared to A$4.50 cents earned from the Tote for every A$100 bet on Australian racing.

“The level of success of the racing industry equals the level of success of the funding it receives. There will be no racing industry with these kinds of contributions from betting exchanges,” he warned.

Mr Henry Chan, the HKJC’s Executive Director of Betting, addressed the conference on how the Hong Kong government’s provision of a flexible regulatory framework in the sphere of football betting had helped the HKJC combat the illegal market.

Mr Chan said a similar preliminary framework had been agreed for racing in Hong Kong - a sport that has been too rigidly regulated for too long - and he hoped that the necessary legislative changes would be effective by the end of the year.

Such revisions would enable the HKJC to modernise Hong Kong’s betting duty structure to enhance competitiveness of its racing product against illegal and offshore bookmakers. This move would also enable the Club to introduce new bets types, to stage more meetings and to simulcast more races from overseas, Mr Chan concluded.

Mr Maurits Bruggink, Commercial Director of the International Federation of Horseracing Authorities (IFHA), outlined an action plan to deal with the problem of illegal wagering on racing.

Bruggink said IFHA members needed to co-operate with the World Intellectual Property Rights Organisation (WIPO), a subsidiary organisation within the umbrella of the United Nations, to inform their respective governments on the extent of the illegal market and then tackle this leakage in revenue.

A ‘Racing Trust Mark’ is on course to be established later this year whereby websites in compliance with the Good Neighbour Policy (also adopted as Article 28 of the IFHA) would receive a seal of approval as contributors to racing, unlike the illegal operators, Bruggink added.

Finally, Dr Kenji Kominami, Executive Counsellor Foreign Affairs of the Japan Racing Association (JRA), said international co-operation between ARF and IFHA members was of paramount importance in tackling illegal wagering.

Dr Kominami cited a recent a ruling last month where the World Trade Organisation ruled in favour of the United States’ attempts to restrict unregulated Internet gambling, a move that had been supported by the JRA.