CHRB wants answers on betting glitch

The California Horse Racing Board has asked the company providing bet-processing services for its racetracks for an explanation of an incident last Saturday that led to the refund of $100,000 in wagers at 33 sites on a race at Hollywood Park, the board said late Wednesday.

According to the racing board, the wagers were canceled and refunded after a stop-betting command issued after the start of Hollywood's ninth race on May 16 was not transmitted to the 33 simulcasting sites. Because bettors at those sites could have conceivably wagered after the start of the race - a practice in the racing industry known as past-posting - all wagers placed at the sites on the affected race were refunded and canceled, according to the board, including those that were legitimately placed before the start of the race.

The bet-processing provider for California's racetracks is Scientific Games Racing, formerly known as Autotote. The state racing board's next scheduled meeting is June 5, and board officials said in a release that they have asked Scientific Games to explain how the stop-betting command failed to be transmitted and detail the steps that the company is taking to prevent the error from happening again.

Last year, Scientific Games acknowledged that its quick-pick machines in California had been operating with an error that excluded the last horse in a race for tickets with randomly generated selections. Scientific Games paid a fine of $200,000 to the racing board because of the glitch.