bigboydan
08-21-2003, 02:29 AM
Couch Potato Gambling Touted
Firm Seeks OK For Races On TV
August 20, 2003
By RICK GREEN, Courant Staff Writer
Serious gambling is as near as the daily numbers game at the neighborhood convenience store, but a new proposal would bring it on home to the La-Z-Boy.
Under the plan submitted by Autotote Enterprises Inc., couch potatoes looking for parimutuel action would be able to watch horse racing on a special cable access TV channel and then place bets over the phone using an Off-Track Betting account. The state's Division of Special Revenue will hold a public hearing on the proposal Thursday morning at 10 in Newington.
Opponents say it's another example of the insidious spread of gambling throughout Connecticut - and one that is clearly illegal. Autotote says broadcasting horse racing on TV is constitutionally protected commercial speech.
"It's a beautiful thing to watch," Autotote President John L. Ponzio said of live horse racing. "It would be available to any subscriber that wants it. We feel it is a natural outlet for our product."
Others, however, fear it will extend gambling's tentacles through the television and into living rooms across Connecticut.
"It sends a chill down my spine," said the Rev. Alexis Carol, program director for the Connecticut Council on Problem Gambling. "It is really creating something new, a new gambling venue and one that is more tempting and tantalizing."
Autotote is seeking a formal ruling from Special Revenue on whether the state legislature's moratorium on additional OTB facilities applies to a television show that features horse racing. Autotote already has the authority to conduct telephone-wagering on races.
During Kentucky Derby broadcasts on network television, "individual homeowners did not become OTB facility operators merely because they received a live transmission," lawyers for Autotote say in documents filed with Special Revenue. Further, they argue that broadcasting a horse race is "constitutionally protected commercial speech" that they will fight to uphold.
"Gambling is not constitutionally protected commercial speech," said state Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, who earlier this year successfully blocked a state lottery scheme to bring lottery-style gambling to home computers. A horse racing show tied into a betting service is illegal in Connecticut, he said.
"It violates the moratorium. The number of simulcasting facilities in the state is limited to eight. This proposal would create a simulcasting facility in every household," said Blumenthal. "The TV broadcast of horse races is legally acceptable, but there simply cannot be a link between the broadcast and the betting service."
University of Connecticut Law School Professor Jeremy Paul said commercial speech can be a gray area - up to a point. Gambling, he noted, is an activity specifically regulated by the state.
"If I want to show a race on TV and gambling was not involved, I could see an argument being made that the citizens have a right to see what's going on," Paul said. "But as soon as they are talking about showing the races and having people bet, we are not talking about speech. We are talking about an activity."
Autotote's Ponzio said televised racing could boost his company's revenues from telephone wagering from $12 million to $18 million a year. The state received $5.7 million from all OTB operations in 2002.
"It's been proven over and over again that if you put the racing signal in TV ... it increases our revenue and increases the tax payments to the state," said Ponzio. Autotote is a subsidiary of Scientific Games Inc.
With gambling now pervasive in the state, from the nearly 3,000 lottery ticket vendors to two of the world's largest casinos to the 18 already operating OTB locations, Ponzio said a horse-racing channel is hardly an expansion.
"All we are doing is putting racing on TV," Ponzio said. "It's not an OTB parlor. It's not an expansion of gambling. All we are doing is nothing more than an expansion of what's already available."
That's the problem, said the Rev. Thomas Grey, executive director of the Illinois-based National Coalition Against Legalized Gambling.
"You are a pathological gambling state as it is," Grey said. "This is a tremendous expansion of gambling. To let it come into the homes is to completely abrogate responsibility for an addictive product."
Firm Seeks OK For Races On TV
August 20, 2003
By RICK GREEN, Courant Staff Writer
Serious gambling is as near as the daily numbers game at the neighborhood convenience store, but a new proposal would bring it on home to the La-Z-Boy.
Under the plan submitted by Autotote Enterprises Inc., couch potatoes looking for parimutuel action would be able to watch horse racing on a special cable access TV channel and then place bets over the phone using an Off-Track Betting account. The state's Division of Special Revenue will hold a public hearing on the proposal Thursday morning at 10 in Newington.
Opponents say it's another example of the insidious spread of gambling throughout Connecticut - and one that is clearly illegal. Autotote says broadcasting horse racing on TV is constitutionally protected commercial speech.
"It's a beautiful thing to watch," Autotote President John L. Ponzio said of live horse racing. "It would be available to any subscriber that wants it. We feel it is a natural outlet for our product."
Others, however, fear it will extend gambling's tentacles through the television and into living rooms across Connecticut.
"It sends a chill down my spine," said the Rev. Alexis Carol, program director for the Connecticut Council on Problem Gambling. "It is really creating something new, a new gambling venue and one that is more tempting and tantalizing."
Autotote is seeking a formal ruling from Special Revenue on whether the state legislature's moratorium on additional OTB facilities applies to a television show that features horse racing. Autotote already has the authority to conduct telephone-wagering on races.
During Kentucky Derby broadcasts on network television, "individual homeowners did not become OTB facility operators merely because they received a live transmission," lawyers for Autotote say in documents filed with Special Revenue. Further, they argue that broadcasting a horse race is "constitutionally protected commercial speech" that they will fight to uphold.
"Gambling is not constitutionally protected commercial speech," said state Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, who earlier this year successfully blocked a state lottery scheme to bring lottery-style gambling to home computers. A horse racing show tied into a betting service is illegal in Connecticut, he said.
"It violates the moratorium. The number of simulcasting facilities in the state is limited to eight. This proposal would create a simulcasting facility in every household," said Blumenthal. "The TV broadcast of horse races is legally acceptable, but there simply cannot be a link between the broadcast and the betting service."
University of Connecticut Law School Professor Jeremy Paul said commercial speech can be a gray area - up to a point. Gambling, he noted, is an activity specifically regulated by the state.
"If I want to show a race on TV and gambling was not involved, I could see an argument being made that the citizens have a right to see what's going on," Paul said. "But as soon as they are talking about showing the races and having people bet, we are not talking about speech. We are talking about an activity."
Autotote's Ponzio said televised racing could boost his company's revenues from telephone wagering from $12 million to $18 million a year. The state received $5.7 million from all OTB operations in 2002.
"It's been proven over and over again that if you put the racing signal in TV ... it increases our revenue and increases the tax payments to the state," said Ponzio. Autotote is a subsidiary of Scientific Games Inc.
With gambling now pervasive in the state, from the nearly 3,000 lottery ticket vendors to two of the world's largest casinos to the 18 already operating OTB locations, Ponzio said a horse-racing channel is hardly an expansion.
"All we are doing is putting racing on TV," Ponzio said. "It's not an OTB parlor. It's not an expansion of gambling. All we are doing is nothing more than an expansion of what's already available."
That's the problem, said the Rev. Thomas Grey, executive director of the Illinois-based National Coalition Against Legalized Gambling.
"You are a pathological gambling state as it is," Grey said. "This is a tremendous expansion of gambling. To let it come into the homes is to completely abrogate responsibility for an addictive product."