ARCADIA, Calif. - Approximately 25 law enforcement officers seized Santa Anita’s recently introduced slot-styled parimutuel gaming machines late Saturday afternoon. Shortly after 4 p.m. Saturday, with one race remaining on the nine-race program, officers wearing California Department of Justice uniforms arrived at a small grandstand pavilion where the 26 machines were based, observers said. The machines were ordered turned off. In the next hour, officers began to transport the machines onto a U-Haul truck and an unmarked van parked in the track’s garden. A press representative of the California Department of Justice cited a provision of California’s penal code related to illegal gaming machines in justifying the seizure. Track officials did not return phone calls late Saturday afternoon, seeking comment on the government action. Early Saturday evening, the track released a statement through a public relations agency, challenging the decision of California Attorney General Rob Bonta's office to seize the machines. "We stand firmly behind our legal analysis,” Scott Daruty, the senior vice president of 1/ST Racing, the track’s parent company, said in the statement. “Racing On Demand operates under California's longstanding parimutuel 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 gaming machines, known as Racing on Demand, were introduced Thursday morning in a venture track officials hoped would lead to an ancillary form of revenue to support California racing. Track officials said at the time that the parimutuel format of the Racing on Demand machines complied with legal and regulatory requirements. “We’re confident it’s legal,” Daruty said Thursday. The machines offered $1 bets only and required bettors to select the first three finishers of three random six-horse races. Bettors received payoffs for correctly naming a minimum of three of the nine finishing positions. Payoffs ranged from $2.98 for naming three or four of the finishing positions to approximately $10,000 for naming all nine. The games were based on past races at several tracks outside of California. The machines are a variation of the historical horse racing machines that have been wildly successful at other venues across the nation, greatly enhancing purses at some tracks. California tracks have long sought a secondary source of revenue to enhance purses and compete with tracks in other states, notably Arkansas and Kentucky, that have considerably higher purse structures. The format of the Racing on Demand machines is based on a $1 3x3 wager introduced at Del Mar in August 2024, and approved by the California Horse Racing Board earlier that year. Santa Anita did not extensively promote the launch of the Racing On Demand machines, sending out introductory information to the press only in the hour before the games were introduced. Earlier on Saturday afternoon, approximately 10 of the machines were being used by customers. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.