The Kentucky House of Representatives late on Monday passed a bill that would require racetracks to round payoffs to the nearest penny and subject all parimutuel wagers on Kentucky races to a 1.5 percent tax.

The House passed the bill by a vote of 66-29, according to legislative records. The bill was sent to the Senate Licensing and Occupations Committee. The vote came at a time when the legislature is grappling with a handful of controversial bills in advance of a March 30 deadline to clear bills in both houses.

Bills that would eliminate dime breakage on parimutuel bets and legalize sports wagering in Kentucky cleared their first hurdles on Wednesday after passing out of a committee that the sponsor of the bills chairs.

The separate bills passed overwhelmingly out of the House Standing Committee on Licensing, Occupations, and Administrative Regulations, which is chaired by Rep. Adam Koenig, a Republican from Northern Kentucky. Koenig is the sponsor of the bills.

Shannon Bishop Arvin, the chief executive officer and president of Keeneland, was elected chair of the National Thoroughbred Racing Association’s board of directors at a meeting on Thursday, according to the NTRA.

Arvin, who took the helm at Keeneland at the beginning of 2021, succeeds Bill Thomason, who was also Arvin’s predecessor at Keeneland. She is the first female chair of the NTRA’s board in the organization’s 23-year history. The board has 16 members, with several slots reserved for various racing constituencies that provide funding for the association.

Caesars Entertainment, the gambling company, will launch an app this spring in partnership with the New York Racing Association that will offer betting on horse races, Caesars and NYRA announced on Thursday.

The app, called Caesars Racebook, will offer betting on “250 racetracks,” both in the U.S. and in foreign markets, according to the release. NYRA Bets, the account-wagering platform operated by NYRA, will process the bets.

The Federal Trade Commission on Friday gave its approval to a broad swath of national racing rules that were proposed by the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority that largely deal with racing safety practices, including voided claims, prohibited practices, and use of the whip.

Total wagering on races held at U.S. racetracks during February shot up 8.4 percent compared to the same month last year, but the average amount of wagering per race declined 3.2 percent due to a large increase in the number of races held when comparing the two months, according to figures released by Equibase on Friday.

A Kentucky legislator has introduced a bill that would eliminate breakage – the practice of rounding parimutuel payouts down – and has re-introduced a bill to legalize sports betting in the state.

Rep. Adam Koenig, a Republican who represents parts of two northern Kentucky counties, filed the bills Monday. The breakage provision is contained in a larger bill that sets parimutuel tax rates at 1.5 percent regardless of the location of where the bet is placed.

Churchill Downs Inc. had net income last year of $249.1 million on net revenue of $1.60 billion, a sharp turnaround from financial results of 2020, when the company’s casino and live-racing businesses were heavily impacted by disruptions caused by the coronavirus pandemic, according to financial statements released on Wednesday.

Jerry Zaro, a Thoroughbred breeder and owner and real estate developer, has been appointed to the New York Racing Association’s board of directors to fill the vacancy created by the retirement of former chairman and member Michael Del Giudice.

Churchill Downs Inc. has reached an agreement to purchase “substantially all” of the assets owned by Peninsula Pacific Entertainment, including Colonial Downs in Virginia and its off-track betting network, CDI announced on Tuesday morning.

The transaction, which also includes casinos in upstate New York and in Iowa, will cost $2.45 billion and it is expected to close by “the end of 2022,” Churchill said in a release.