The FBI is investigating race-fixing at Penn National and possibly other race tracks in Pennsylvania, according to sources familiar with the probe.
Two sources – one a state official and the other a board member of a horsemen’s association – said the scope of the investigation was not clear: whether it focuses on one race, or many races at one track or multiple tracks.
News of the probe follows the introduction of a state Senate bill this week that would expand oversight of Pennsylvania’s multibillion dollar horse-racing industry and pave the way for Internet wagering
The sources did not say whether the investigation had influenced the introduction of the bill. A spokeswoman for the FBI would neither confirm nor deny an investigation. But a member of the board of the Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association at Penn National racetrack confirmed he had been interviewed by FBI agents.
The new legislation, introduced by four senior Republicans, would create a Bureau of Horse Racing to oversee all day-to-day operations of racing statewide. The bureau would enforce stringent drug testing, increase fines, and crack down on the exchange of “gifts” from breeders, trainers and owners to track personnel and their relatives.
The bureau would be run by the state’s Gaming Control Board. Currently, an underfunded and understaffed Racing Commission reports to the state Department of Agriculture.
Under the new law, the Gaming Board would be able to grant licenses to casinos for telephone and Internet wagering systems that would take bets on horse racing only. The money wagered via the Internet would be folded into the pari-mutuel handle, with any new tax revenue it generates paying for the new regulatory oversight. There was no estimate on how much money would be generated.
The four sponsors of the bill are among the largest recipients of racing-industry money.
During the 2012 election cycle, State Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi, R-Delaware, accepted $65,000 from state horsemen’s groups. The three other sponsors in the state Senate took lesser sums: Robert Tomlinson R-Bucks, $8,500; Elder Vogel, R-Allegheny, $7,000; and Joseph Scarnati, R-Jefferson, $5,000.
A spokesman for Pileggi said the bill puts the reins of regulation into appropriate hands.
“He believes that Pennsylvania has a large, well-staffed and highly skilled Gaming Control Board which already regulates billions of dollars worth of gaming activity in the Commonwealth,” said Pileggi spokesman Erik Arneson. “It’s entirely appropriate for the Gaming Control Board to take over the role of regulating standardbred and thoroughbred racing, along with pari-mutuel wagering, as part of their duties.”
One industry source, who asked not to be named for fear of retribution, criticized the new bill as a way of preemptively taking the sting out of the federal probe and allowing the bill’s sponsors to establish some distance from the powerful horsemen’s associations who have been major funders of their political campaigns.
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