New account rules in New Hampshire

The New Hampshire Racing and Charitable Gaming Commission adopted rules on Tuesday that will require parimutuel facilities to maintain separate bank accounts for funds deposited by account-wagering customers, the executive director of the commission said.

The rules were adopted in reaction to the December bankruptcy of Hinsdale Greyhound Park, which ran an account-wagering operation used by hundreds of horseplayers. Because of the bankruptcy, the funds on deposit in the accounts - approximately a half-million dollars - are now under the control of the bankruptcy court, and attorneys for Hinsdale have estimated that the account-holders will receive 10 to 25 cents of every dollar on deposit at the conclusion of the track's liquidation.

The new rules requiring separate bank accounts would prohibit tracks from mingling account-wagering money with their operating funds, according to Paul Kelley, the executive director of the commission.

New Hampshire's three remaining parimutuel facilities - two greyhound tracks and the harness track Rockingham Park - run account-wagering operations.

Most states that license account-wagering operations require the companies to either post bonds backing the funds in accounts or maintain separate accounts to hold deposits. New Hampshire had no such regulations when Hinsdale filed for bankruptcy.