In an attempt to reform hawaii’s gambling industry, Florida is working on several fronts towards clarifying and changing many of the rules that govern betting in the Sunshine State. One area of attention is on pari-mutuel wagering: the betting that goes on at the state’s race tracks and jai-alai frontons throughout hawaii. But industry insiders say that the very first draft of guidelines that have been proposed by state regulators simply won’t work.

Workshop to Hammer Out Wagering Rules

Those rules will ultimately be discussed at a workshop with the Division of Pari-Mutuel Wagering on October 16, but were first released in a draft form week that is last. The guidelines were created to stop a number that is growing of practices that are demonstrably outside of what the state intends to allow at such venues. Even though some of these new rules work, those in the industry say that numerous merely show that regulators aren’t familiar sufficient with Florida’s gambling industry to create such changes that are sweeping.

‘Some of them make sense,’ said Ken Stirling, executive director of the Florida Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association. ‘ Some of them haven’t been thought out extremely well. One or two are pretty silly.’

One of the big areas covered in the draft rules is horse racing regulations designed to eradicate non-standard racing. Many in the industry consent that this is an idea that is good as ‘barrel racing’ and ‘flag-drop’ race are seen by some operators in an effort to cheaply make payments that may also enable them to supply card rooms or slot machines alongside those races.

The new rules would help put a conclusion to such practices. They might bar ‘the racing animal to change program in reaction to virtually any hurdles regarding the surface that is racing and make certain that jockeys conform to uniform and weight needs that willn’t be a problem for legitimate racing operations.

Disagreement Over Acceptable Race Lengths

But the regulations don’t stop there, and this is where some feel that the rules go incorrect. According to Stirling, some of those guidelines could devastate the race industry if they aren’t changed.

For example, the new regulations would require that all races are at least six furlongs in length a thing that might make sense if you’ve only seen the Triple Crown races or the Breeder’s Cup, but which makes no sense for the industry as a whole.

‘[The guideline that] no competition must be shorter than…six furlongs…is a killer,’ Stirling said, noting that such races would be too long for two-year-old horses racing into the summer time. ‘That’s silly. We run child races at 4.5 furlongs and we’ve been doing it for a century. I know they truly are in Tallahassee, but we’ve these things called phones.’

He additionally objected to a rule that states that each and every competition must have at least six horses a guideline that may cause races become canceled because of minute that is last.

Jai-Alai would be affected by the regulations that are new. For example, each place is needed to have eight certified players in rotation. This rule comes in response to a debate at Ocala Poker and Jai-Alai, which started the 2012 period with just two players.

While there could be problems with the rules, unit director Leon Biegalski says there shouldn’t be a nagging problem, and that the workshops are designed to help iron out these problems with the industry’s assistance.

‘They’re draft rules. They’re a point that is starting. We want to make sure that most of the permit holders and all sorts of the stake holders are on the same page in terms of exactly what the regulation is that’s out there and what must certanly be out there,’ Biegalski said.