DEL MAR, Calif. – Legislation that would increase takeout for exotic bets on California races and permit the development of exchange betting was stuck at the committee level on Friday.

The state legislative session is scheduled to end on Tuesday, but the legislature has yet to produce a state budget and is not expected to adjourn on that date. That could give the bill more time to pass through the State Senate and Assembly. It could even be divided into a takeout bill and an exchange betting bill, said one legislative analyst.

The business world generally agrees that the last option for a struggling industry should be raising prices. But the California racing industry is contemplating just that option in legislation that would boost the takeout on exotic and superexotic wagers by 2 or 3 points.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – A joint committee of the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission on Thursday approved a set of rules governing a program that will allow regulators to test horses for banned substances such as blood-enhancing drugs at any time or place.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – A group opposed to expanded gambling in Kentucky filed a brief on Monday to intervene in a request from the state’s racing commission for a state court to rule on whether gambling devices using already-run races to generate random numbers are illegal under the state’s constitution, the group, the Family Foundation of Kentucky, said on Monday.

Legislation that would increase the takeout on exotic wagers in California and authorize exchange betting in the state has been introduced in the state Assembly.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Despite unprecedented year-over-year declines in betting handle, auction receipts, and the size of the foal crop, the Thoroughbred racing industry has reasons to be optimistic about its future, officials of a variety of racing organizations contended on Sunday during the Jockey Club’s Round Table Conference on Matters Pertaining to Racing.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Over the past two years, the racing industry has been battered by the forces unleashed by the recession. Banks have called in their loans and tightened their credit standards, wrecking bloodstock valuations, while consumers have stubbornly resisted opening their wallets to gamble on horse races.

Keeneland Association, the Lexington, Ky., racing and sales company, has offered buyouts to an unspecified number of its full-time employees, the president of the company, Nick Nicholson, confirmed on Wednesday.

Nicholson said the buyouts were issued as part of the company’s ongoing efforts to cut costs in the face of significant declines in the auction market and depressed handle. Compared to 2008, total auction receipts in the U.S. in 2009 plunged 34 percent, from $941 million to $617 million.

MI Developments, the real-estate operating company that took over the assets of bankrupt Magna Entertainment Corp. earlier this year, lost $6.2 million on its racing and gambling operations in the second quarter of 2010, according to the company’s financial statements.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – New York legislators will not approve a company selected by the state lottery to operate a casino at Aqueduct racetrack until they have had an opportunity to question the company on its proposal, including its plans for minority- and women-owned contractors, a representative of Sen. Malcolm Smith, the Senate president pro tem, said on Friday.