Wagering

Maryland's major thoroughbred racetracks, taking their first tentative steps into the world of Internet gambling, have reached agreement that will allow fans to bet on races at Pimlico Race Course or Laurel Park from their home computers.Races and data -- including audio and video -- from the Maryland tracks will be Web cast by Youbet.com Inc., a Los Angeles-based interactive technology company. Subscribers will pay a monthly fee, now $5.95, open an account and place bets over their computers.

Reflecting a trend at horse tracks across the country, Laurel Park parlayed a successful fall into a successful 1998. Despite six fewer wagering days, betting at Pimlico, Laurel Park and their off-track betting sites increased 2.4 percent over 1997.``Considering the Preakness debacle and all that's happening around us, we've managed to hold our own pretty well,'' said Joe De Francis, majority owner of Pimlico and Laurel Park.Despite losing an estimated $2 million in wagers because of the power outage on Preakness day, the Maryland Jockey Club reported an increase in Maryland betting from $449,242,798 in 1997 to $459,826,969 in 1998.

In the most serious challenge to horse racing's fledgling "league office," a group of mid-Atlantic tracks is threatening a mutiny over the issue of who should control the future of telephone and Internet wagering.A group of 10 tracks in the region, including Pimlico Race Course and Laurel Park, faxed a letter on Thursday to the National Thoroughbred Racing Association complaining about the NTRA's plans to establish its own industry-wide wagering hub."The details have been reviewed only by representatives of five or six large tracks, and this venture now is being forced down the throat of the rest of the industry," the track owners wrote to Tim Smith, commissioner of the NTRA.

The Maryland Jockey Club has signed a letter of intent to televise races on a proposed cable television network that will include an in-home wagering system."

One day last year, the riders at Laurel Park competed in a very special race -- the Kenny Capone Classic."I'll bet everybody was saying, 'Who the heck is Kenny Capone?' " said his mother, Nancy. "But he was tickled to death. His name was printed in the program, and he got a framed picture with a lot of the jockeys' signatures on it."Kenny Capone is not a famous owner, trainer or jockey, past or present. He is an average, small-money bettor who attends the races regularly and has the time of his life.

For the second time within eight days, a prohibitive favorite has been beaten at Pimlico.Blushing K.D., the nation's leading 3-year-old filly, was fourth at 1-to-10 odds in the Black-Eyed Susan Stakes on May 16 and Awad followed suit at 1-to-2 yesterday, finishing third in the $75,000 Riggs Handicap over the turf course.Awad, now 7, has earned almost $3 million during a distinguished career that has spanned the globe, but he couldn't challenge virtual wire-to-wire winner Winsox and the fast-closing Shoot Back in the Riggs.

Pimlico Race Course's spring meeting, which boasts the showcase events of the Maryland racing season, showed a slight decline in handle from 1995 yesterday.Overall, the drop was only about 1 percent with all types of wagering considered, including Maryland betting on out-of-state racing and out-of-state wagers on Maryland racing."But there is a trend that continues to disturb me," said Maryland Jockey Club president Joe De Francis. "That is the Maryland wagering on the Maryland card. It is off about another 12 percent."

A Maryland company has launched a site on the Internet that it calls the first U.S.-based service for "legalized gambling" on the World Wide Web, offering high-tech rollers the opportunity to win up to $1 million instantly on line.But an official in the state attorney general's office, when told of the company's plans, expressed doubt yesterday about whether the service was legal.RealTIME Prizes Network Inc. of Silver Spring announced the official launch of its "Prizes Domain" yesterday, but company President Robert Auxier said the Web site has been in full operation for at least a month.

As the fight over legalizing casinos heads into the Maryland General Assembly this winter, thoroughbred race track owner Joseph A. De Francis is emerging as the man in the middle.Hundreds of slot machines and video lottery terminals will open this year at race courses in Delaware, threatening to lure fans and horses away from his tracks, Laurel and Pimlico.But if Mr. De Francis asks the legislature for slots to compete with Delaware, he may pave the way for casinos elsewhere in Maryland -- creating further competition for his struggling racing business.

Welcome to the Gambler's Channel.Through your television set, you can bet on 12 races an hour, day and night. Just punch in your wager on the remote-control keypad and watch your money disappear as your choice trails the pack. If you get bored, we have other ways to separate you from your cash. Stay tuned for our 24-hour, in-home keno TV game. Soon to come: In-home blackjack, craps and roulette.Remember our motto -- We'll take your money any way we can get it.Fact is proving stranger than fiction.

College basketball Report: Memphis responding to alleged NCAA violations The University of Memphis is responding to an NCAA notice of allegations accusing the men's basketball program of major violations during the 2007-08 season under John Calipari, a newspaper reported Wednesday. The allegations include "knowing fraudulence or misconduct" on an SAT exam by a player on that season's team, which finished runner-up in the NCAA tournament, The Commercial Appeal reported on its Web site.

Wagering on Pimlico Race Course races fell 16.5 percent this spring from last year, a steep drop that one racing official called "unique." "A decline of this size is unique compared to other regions and points to the competitive influences playing out in the Mid-Atlantic," Keith Chamblin, National Thoroughbred Racing Association vice president, said from his New York office. "About one-third of Pimlico's wagering decline was directly attributable to business declines on Preakness Day. The remaining decline is likely due to a combination of factors."

While a picture-perfect afternoon greeted an announced 5,253 on the opening day of the 2008 Pimlico spring meeting yesterday - 600 more than last year's opener - the climate wasn't nearly as friendly for the recently concluded winter meet at Laurel Park. Total wagering at Laurel this winter was down 17.3 percent from last year, dropping from $3.56 million per day to $2.943 million, according to figures released yesterday. Dropping from 71 dates in 2007 to 59 this year, all-sources handle totaled $219.

With their team at 3-2 in the AFC North, Ravens fans have reason to be hopeful, if not overly confident, that the playoffs are still very much within reach. However, the Ravens' performance as measured in a slightly different way might portend more trouble than the team's won-lost record would indicate. Against the point spread - the odds that are set each week to determine by how many points one team needs to beat another for wagering purposes - the Ravens are 0-5. Only two other teams, the Denver Broncos and New Orleans Saints, are winless against the oddsmakers' line this season.

Maryland horse racing produces its share of depressing headlines as the political stalemate over slots continues, the future of the Preakness Stakes is debated, and more of the state's breeders and horsemen contemplate leaving. But there is a positive development amid the negativity, and it is on display today at Pimlico Race Course: The Preakness is booming like never before. The Maryland Jockey Club, which oversees the state's racing franchise, might struggle the rest of the year, but it excels on the third Saturday in May. "They do a hell of a job here.

Aided by a record attendance at the Preakness and strong export numbers, total wagering improved last year for the tracks operated by the Maryland Jockey Club. All-sources handle totaled $960.2 million, an increase of more than $64 million (or 7.2 percent) over 2005 figures, and the average daily handle from all sources rose more than 15 percent to $4.1 million despite 11 fewer days of live racing at Pimlico Race Course and Laurel Park. Lou Raffetto, president and chief operating officer of the Maryland Jockey Club, found the results "encouraging.

Horse racing's problem is obvious: a decades-long slump in attendance and wagering at the track. Horse racing's solution might be less obvious: Get people to stay home -- and bet. In a seemingly paradoxical and counterintuitive turn, online technology, which would appear to discourage going to the races, is being viewed as a potential life-saver for a sport on life support. "Over the 25 years I've been in this industry, not one day has gone by when I haven't heard people complaining that our customer base is getting older and we can't attract young people," said Joseph A. De Francis, chief executive officer of the Maryland Jockey Club and executive vice president for operations of interactive betting channels for parent Magna Entertainment Corp.

Magna Entertainment Corp., the publicly held Canadian company that owns Laurel Park, Pimlico Race Course and the Preakness Stakes, reported a first-quarter profit of more than $2.2 million, worth 2 cents a share. Last year for the same period, Magna Entertainment lost 4 cents a share, with the results restated to exclude performance of discontinued operations. Company chairman and interim CEO Frank Stronach said that it was Magna Entertainment's first quarter with net income since the first quarter of 2004 and that it marked the third consecutive quarterly improvement over the previous year's comparative period.

Despite a year of turmoil over slots issues and racing dates, wagering at Pimlico Race Course and Laurel Park increased in 2005, according to figures released by the Maryland Jockey Club yesterday. Fueled by a record-setting Preakness, a new turf course at Laurel and two stakes-heavy cards on the Laurel fall calendar, the total handle climbed from $868.1 million in 2004 to $896.1 million in 2005. The daily average handle increased by nearly 4 percent to $3.54 million. And wagering during the Laurel fall meeting was up nearly 30 percent, while export numbers were up more than 60 percent from the previous autumn.

New York Yankees superstar Alex Rodriguez's apparent recent foray to a Manhattan poker den is hardly the first time a sports celebrity has publicly rubbed shoulders with gamblers, but he can thank changing mores for the relatively mild reaction the affair has gotten from baseball's overlords. Rodriguez reportedly was spotted in one of New York's underground poker clubs with card pro Phil Hellmuth in September. In New York, even if such a poker room is being operated illegally, it is not illegal to play in one. Still, when the A-Rod/Hellmuth sighting hit the New York papers last month, the Yankees front office's response reportedly was to suggest to the third baseman that he should re-examine his off-field pursuits - but there were no sanctions.