Police take away 26 new gaming machines from Santa Anita

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Provided by supply to Horse Racing Nation

The California authorities answered Santa Anita’s dare to close off new gaming machines by confiscating them in a late-afternoon raid Saturday.

Police officers from the state Department of Justice and the town of Arcadia rounded up the 26 terminals solely two days after The Stronach Group activated them in a low-key launch.

“The HHR machines at Santa Anita are being shut down,” a supply stated in a textual content to Horse Racing Nation on Saturday. “The California DOJ in full force.”

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Following the lead of different states’ historic horse-racing idea, the Racing On Demand machines had been activated to gather cash for dwell purses. Their legality at all times was going to be in dispute. Outside of racing, Indian tribes got the fitting to regulate most playing in California because of a constitutional modification authorised by 64% of voters in March 2000. The tribes haven’t been open to sharing that proper, so that they have been the most important impediment stopping California tracks from establishing a slot-machine income lifeline.

Scott Daruty, Stronach’s senior vp of the Los Angeles Turf Club, blamed California legal professional basic Rob Bonta for failing to speak with monitor administration.

“We stand firmly behind our legal analysis,” Daruty stated in a written assertion Saturday. “Racing On Demand operates under California’s longstanding pari-mutuel wagering laws using a wager that regulators already approved. Attorney general Bonta received our comprehensive legal analysis nearly a year ago. His office had ample time to raise concerns. They did not. We proceeded on solid legal ground, and since the state is choosing to challenge that now, we’re fully prepared to defend ourselves. We’re confident the law is clear.”

The regulatory approval Daruty talked about got here in April 2024, when the California Horse Racing Board signed off on 3-on-3 wagering. That permits bettors to select the trifecta in three races with payouts primarily based on how lots of the 9 horses hitting the board had been chosen by every participant. That format, which has had a tepid response in dwell racing, was the premise for the Racing On Demand machines.

It was not clear whether or not the CHRB was conscious that Stronach would use 3-on-3 in its technique to emulate the historic horse-racing success that has fueled purses in states like Arkansas, Kentucky and Virginia.

Bonta’s media-relations workforce was requested by HRN for remark Saturday, but it surely had not responded by Sunday morning.

Put merely, Stronach believes the machines are allowed as a result of they’re primarily based on pari-mutuel swimming pools. The tribes and apparently the legal professional basic imagine they’re video games of likelihood.

Videos despatched by a supply to HRN confirmed armed, uniformed officers utilizing hand dollies to take away the machines from the bottom ground of the Santa Anita grandstand. The terminals had been loaded into the again of a field truck. The Los Angeles Times stated about 15 officers collected the machines and all of the money in them. Daily Racing Form stated the roundup got here shortly earlier than Saturday’s final of 9 dwell races.

“When you put illegal gambling machines in a liquor store, it gets shut down,” Indian Gaming Association convention chairperson Victor Rocha wrote Sunday on X. “If Santa Anita has illegal machines, they should be out of business. California didn’t sign up for racinos.”