Bet-processing outage affects several U.S. tracks

A late scratch in the third race at Mahoning Valley Race Course in Ohio led to a brief bet-processing outage at several tracks in the U.S. on Monday, delaying payouts and betting services at the tracks for approximately half an hour, according to officials with knowledge of the problem.

The tracks affected by the outage included Mahoning Valley, Parx racetrack in Philadelphia, Sam Houston in Texas, and Laurel in Maryland, according to the officials.

The problem began when the late scratch in Mahoning Valley’s third race reduced the field to four horses, which led track officials to cancel the superfecta wager for the race, according to Mark Loewe, the vice president of racing for the Ohio operations of Mahoning’s parent company, Penn National Gaming Inc. That triggered a problem at a regional bet-processing center run by Sportech, one of the three dominant totalizator companies in the U.S., Loewe said.

Loewe said the outage lasted for 35 minutes. At Mahoning, it led to a 54-minute interlude between the track’s third and fourth races, while at Parx, the gap between the same races was approximately 58 minutes. At Sam Houston, the gap between the track’s second and third races was 50 minutes. In addition, payouts on Laurel’s third race were delayed because of the outage.