NYRA temporarily suspends CAW restrictions

New restrictions on betting by computer-assisted wagering programs put in place on Thursday by the New York Racing Association were suspended on Friday, NYRA announced just before the day’s card was scheduled to start.

The suspension was related to “technical upgrades to the tote system,” according to Patrick McKenna, the vice president of communications for NYRA. The upgrades are expected to be completed by Feb. 11, the next day of racing at NYRA’s Aqueduct racetrack following Friday’s card.

McKenna said that the revisions were unrelated to three win wagers made by a CAW entity in the first race at Aqueduct on Thursday. Those bets, which all lost, totaled $206,700 and were sent into the pool with three minutes to post, approximately one minute prior to a prohibition on CAW betting in the win pool under a policy that NYRA adopted in 2021.

NYRA has been beset over the past two weeks by harsh winter-weather conditions that have frequently sent temperatures dipping well below freezing. NYRA was scheduled to run live on Saturday and Sunday, but it cancelled those cards on Thursday due to forecasts of sub-freezing temperatures and gusting winds.

The new restrictions were designed to throttle back CAW activity in all NYRA pools with one minute to post by limiting betting to six bets per second. The restrictions on CAW wagering in the win pool and two multi-race bets, the late Pick Five and daily Pick 6, will remain in place until the tote upgrades are completed, NYRA said.

The tote upgrades are “connected to the throttling down of high-speed wagering required by NYRA,” McKenna said. The six-bets-per-minute threshold is used as a legal definition of CAW wagering under agreements NYRA and other large tracks reach with CAW players.

NYRA is the only racetrack in the U.S. to have placed significant restrictions on CAW play in all of its pools.

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