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 part of attention is on pari-mutuel wagering: the betting that goes on during the state’s race tracks and frontons that are jai-alai the state. But industry insiders say that the very first draft of guidelines that have actually been proposed by state regulators merely will not 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 kind week that is last. The guidelines are made to eliminate a number that is growing of practices that are clearly outside of what the state intends to enable at such venues. And while some of those new rules work, those into the industry say that many merely show that regulators aren’t familiar sufficient with Florida’s gambling industry to make such sweeping changes.

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

Among the big areas covered in the draft guidelines is horse racing regulations designed to eradicate non-standard racing. Many in the industry agree that this is an idea that is good as ‘barrel racing’ and ‘flag-drop’ race have already been seen by some operators as a way to cheaply make payments that will even enable them to provide card spaces or slots alongside those races.

The brand new rules would help put a conclusion to practices that are such. They would bar ‘the racing animal to alter program in response to virtually any hurdles in the surface that is racing and make certain that jockeys conform to uniform and fat demands that willn’t be a problem for legitimate racing operations.

Disagreement Over Acceptable Race Lengths

But the laws don’t stop there, and that’s where some feel that the rules go incorrect. According to Stirling, some among these guidelines could devastate the race industry if they aren’t changed.

For instance, the new regulations would require that all races are at least six furlongs in length a thing that might make sense in the event that you’ve only seen the Triple Crown races or the Breeder’s Cup, but making no sense for the industry all together.

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

He additionally objected to a rule that states that each race must have at the very least six horses a guideline that may cause races become canceled as a result of minute that is last.

Jai-Alai would also be affected by the brand new regulations. For instance, each venue is required to possess eight players that are certified rotation. This rule comes in response to a controversy at Ocala Poker and Jai-Alai, which began the 2012 season with only two players.

While there might be problems with the rules, division director Leon Biegalski says there shouldn’t be considered a problem, and that the workshops are designed to help iron out these problems aided by the industry’s assistance.

‘They’re draft rules. They’re a starting place. We should make sure that most of the permit holders and all sorts of the stake holders are on the page that is same terms of just what the regulation is that’s out there and what ought to be out there,’ Biegalski said.