Protecting Racing -- In a poll of British sports fans conducted by talkSPORT radio and You Guv, 70 percent of the more than 1,000 respondents answered "Yes" to the question, "Do you believe horse racing is a corrupt sport?" Fourteen percent said "No," and the remaining 16 percent said they did not know. . . . The U.K. Jockey Club recently supplemented its mobile phone policy with another measure that closes what it feels was a loophole in the original policy. For the last year, the club's policy has been to prohibit mobile phone use for the time period beginning one half hour before the first race and ending with the start of the last race unless a call is made from a designated area in the weighing room where it can be logged. However, there was previously nothing in the policy to prevent jockeys from leaving the racecourse to make a mobile call. The policy's new supplement--rule 248 in the latest edition of the Racing Calendar--states that over the same time period, jockeys and other personnel "may not leave and return to racecourse property without first obtaining the permission of the weighing room security officer, or in his absence a stewards' secretary." The policy is in place to prevent jockeys from communicating inside information with outsiders who could place wagers.
Delay -- The Isle of Man's Council of Ministers was supposed to review a Department of Trade & Industry report that recommends the isle change its I-gaming policy to allow operators to accept bets from the United States, but the review of the report had to be postponed for a week after a new chief minister joined the council. The former chief minister, Richard Corkill, resigned on Dec. 2, one day after he and his wife were arrested and questioned about grants paid to them by the isle's department of tourism for a holiday home they run. They were released without charges.
Quoteworthy -- "We frankly find attempts at prohibition to be very shortsighted. It's clear the public is [gambling online] in ever-greater numbers. The logical thing to do is legalize it, regulate it and tax it."
- Alan Feldman, senior vice-president of MGM Mirage, as quoted in a Business Week Online article that addresses the U.S. government's attempts to prohibit I-gaming despite a potential global backlash.
TRA Committee -- The board of directors for the Thoroughbred Racing Associations, an organization of North American racing associations and tracks, voted unanimously on Thursday to form a committee to examine the possibility of creating an industry-owned betting exchange in the United States. The TRA board met during last week's RTIP Symposium on Racing, following a day filled with much debate over betting exchanges. TRA Executive Vice President Chris Scherf, who has been primarily responsible for bringing betting exchanges into the organization's focus, has alerted the TRA that perhaps as little as one year remains until exchange betting becomes prominent in the States. He fears that if tracks are unable to operate exchanges themselves, they could end up losing a huge chunk of turnover to offshore operators who are not obligated to return any revenue to the industry. Legal changes would be required in many North American jurisdictions before exchange betting could be operated in the United States.
eCOGRA Approved -- eCOGRA (eCommerce and Online Gaming Regulation and Assurance) has awarded two more seals of approval to Internet casinos that have gone through independent testing and inspection by PriceWaterhouseCoopers to ensure they comply with the organization's requirements of operational efficiency, fair gaming and player protection. The additions of Kasino Grand Bay.com and Lake Palace Casino.com bring the total number of eCOGRA-approved casinos to 51.