Antigambling bill dead on arrival, officials say

A bill introduced by two congressmen on Thursday night that would ban interstate wagering on horse racing likely will find little to no traction in the legislature and will be opposed by every major racing organization, racing officials said on Friday.

The bill, introduced by Sen. Tom Udall, a Democrat of New Mexico, and Rep. Joe Pitts, a Republican from Pennsylvania, caught the industry by surprise when the two congressmen announced its introduction in a joint release Thursday night, according to the officials.

No racing organization – even those that have supported efforts to involve the federal government in the oversight of racing’s medication policies – supported its introduction, the racing officials said.

If passed, the bill almost certainly would bring the entire U.S. racing industry to a halt by banning a practice that allows for 90 percent of wagering nationwide, the industry’s primary racing-related revenue source. The bill’s intent, according to a copy of the legislation provided by Udall’s office, is “encouraging the sport to end doping and crack down on cheaters.”

Racing officials with ties to federal legislative efforts on Friday characterized the bill as the “nuclear option” to force racing to address what its critics contend are inadequate oversight of medication use and the abuse of performance-enhancing drugs. The officials said the bill has no shot to pass the larger Congress and is unlikely to get past a committee.

“This is absolutely dead on arrival,” said one official with close ties to legislators who spoke on the condition of anonymity to protect his relationships in Washington. The official noted that the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, a Republican, represents Kentucky.

The officials said that most racing groups have been communicating with each other regarding federal efforts to regulate racing, and that no group had indicated that it was given an advance warning about the introduction of the bill. The officials also shot down any notion that racing groups or individuals interested in federal regulation of the sport had lobbied for the introduction of the bill as a stalking horse for a measure that would seem meek in comparison.

“I don’t know what purpose it would serve,” said Chris Scherf, the executive vice president of the Thoroughbred Racing Associations, a racetrack trade group. “Shutting down an entire industry, this just makes no sense at all.”

Udall and Pitts have co-sponsored bills in the past that would give the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, a private company, the authority to oversee the sport’s medication policies and would ban the race-day administration of medication, which in the vast majority of states is limited to the anti-bleeding medication furosemide. Those bills have found lukewarm support in the past from some racing individuals and groups, including The Jockey Club, but the measures have never made it out of committee, in large part because of a lack of unanimity within the industry on the issues involved.

Jim Gagliano, the president of The Jockey Club, noted in a statement released Friday that the organization still remains in support of a ban on race-day medication. But he also said The Jockey Club “would strongly oppose any effort to repeal” the Interstate Horseracing Act, which gives racing the authority to conduct interstate betting. The Pitts/Udall bill would ban interstate wagering by repealing the act.

“We are disappointed they have decided to take this approach,” the statement said.

The bill introduced Thursday states that “the use of performance-enhancing drugs in horseracing is widespread in the United States, where no uniform regulations exists with respect to the use of, and testing for, performance-enhancing drugs in interstate horseracing.”

Both the release and the bill state that “misuse of permitted medication and abuse of illegal drugs” is a leading cause of horse-racing fatalities, though a link between the two has not been studied or scientifically demonstrated even if anecdotal evidence would seem to suggest a link exists.

Alex Waldrop, the chief executive of the National Thoroughbred Racing Association, which employs two federal lobbyists but is neutral on the issue of federal oversight of racing, called the bill a “shameless publicity stunt” in a statement released Friday, a reference to the announcement coming on the eve of Kentucky Derby weekend, when there is widespread interest in racing. The statement also said the bill “unfairly disparages thousands of people who work every day to make horseracing as safe and fair as possible for all participants.”