Historical Horse Racing machines in Kentucky do not meet “Kentucky’s constitutional requirement of being ‘pari-mutuel'” the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission stated following a 7-0 vote against allowing the machines in the State.
HHR has provided a great deal of funding for the Kentucky horse racing industry. It is a gaming product where individuals can wager on horse races that have occurred in the past. The product leverages a database of historical horse races and presents handicapping information in a manner where the player cannot identify the race prior to locking in the wager. Once the wager is placed, full information is presented and the race is “run,” providing a similar experience to a live race. Leveraging HHR can create a model where gamers who wager on horse racing pay for the emergency sustainability of our horses. The product can be offered through an existing online platform.
This decision (read more below) could have an effect on whether Woodbine Entertainment and Ontario Racing is successful in its request of the Federal Government to allow the machines.
Woodbine Entertainment and Ontario Racing approached the Federal Government earlier this year requesting the legalization of HHR which would provide much-needed financial relief to the Canadian horse industry without requiring government funding.
The HHR product has been common in many jurisdictions including Kentucky and Virginia in the United States and runs on existing datasets. In order to make this a reality, HHR requires a technical change to the definition of the term “bet” in the Criminal Code of Canada. The term “bet” is defined in Section 197(1) of the Criminal Code of Canada as “an event that is to take place.” This precludes wagering on events that have occurred in the past such as HHR, even though it is anonymized.
from the Louisville Courier-Journal:
The Kentucky Supreme Court dealt the state’s signature thoroughbred industry a resounding blow Thursday in ruling that a significant source of horse racing’s revenues is unconstitutional.
Historical Horse Racing terminals, outwardly indistinguishable from slot machines, have been a windfall for Kentucky tracks, responsible for the nation’s highest average purse in 2019 ($64,250) and a continuing construction boom.
Just Monday, Keeneland and Kentucky Downs announced a joint venture that would expand HHR’s impact to Corbin and Williamsburg.
But in a 7-0 decision that could imperil both that project and existing facilities such as Churchill Downs’ Derby City Gaming, the state’s highest court ruled that many, if not all, of the state’s HHR machines do not meet Kentucky’s constitutional requirement of being “pari-mutuel” and that the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission exceeded its authority in allowing them.
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