2014 California Code
Business and Professions Code - BPC
DIVISION 8 - SPECIAL BUSINESS REGULATIONS
CHAPTER 4 - Horse Racing
ARTICLE 9 - Wagering
19602

(a) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, any racing association located in this state may authorize betting systems located outside of this state to accept wagers on a race or races conducted or disseminated by that association and may transmit live audiovisual signals of the race or races and their results to those betting systems, except that any authorization is subject to the consent of the host association and applicable federal laws, including, but not limited to, Chapter 57 (commencing with Section 3001) of Title 15 of the United States Code.

(b) (1) Except as provided in paragraph (2), any racing association described in subdivision (a), when it authorizes betting systems located outside of this state to accept wagers on a race, shall pay a license fee to the state in an amount equal to 8 percent of the total amount received by the association from the out-of-state betting system. In addition, with respect to thoroughbred racing only, 3 percent of the amount remaining after the payment of the license fee shall be deposited with the official registering agency pursuant to subdivision (a) of Section 19617.2, and shall thereafter be distributed in accordance with subdivisions (b), (c), and (d) of Section 19617.2. The remaining amount received by the association shall be distributed to the association that conducts the racing meeting and to horsemen participating in that racing meeting as follows: 50 percent to the association as commissions, and 50 percent to the horsemen as purses. All rents, costs, and fees shall be deducted pursuant to a contract between the association that conducts the racing meeting and the horsemen participating in the racing meeting. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, racing associations may form a partnership, joint venture, or any other affiliation in order to negotiate terms and conditions of agreements with out-of-state betting systems.

(2) A thoroughbred association that hosts the series of races known as the “Breeder’s Cup” shall not be required to pay to the state the license fees required pursuant to paragraph (1). Amounts received by the association from out-of-state betting systems as wagers on Breeder’s Cup races shall be distributed as follows: 50 percent as commissions to the association that conducts the racing meeting, and 50 percent as purses to the horsemen participating in the meeting.

(c) With the permission of the board, wagers accepted by betting systems located outside of this state may be, but are not required to be, included in the parimutuel pool of the association that conducts the racing meeting in this state. If the wagers accepted by betting systems located outside of this state are included in the parimutuel pool of the association that conducts the racing meeting in this state, the betting system located outside of this state shall, if permissible under applicable law, deduct from the total amount handled in each conventional and exotic parimutuel pool the same total percentages deducted pursuant to Article 9.5 (commencing with Section 19610) by the association that conducts the racing meeting in this state. If the laws of the jurisdiction in which the betting system is located do not permit the betting system to deduct the same percentages as are deducted by the association that conducts the racing meeting, the board may, nonetheless, permit the inclusion of those out-of-state wagers in the association’s parimutuel pool if the board determines it to be in the public interest of this state to do so.

(d) If wagers accepted by an association conducting a racing meeting within the state and wagers accepted by a betting system located outside of the state are combined in one parimutuel pool and the association and the betting system both deduct the same total percentages as set forth in subdivision (c), the breakage shall be allocated between the association and the betting system on the basis of a calculation for distribution approved by the board.

(e) If wagers accepted by an association conducting a racing meeting within the state are combined in one parimutuel pool with wagers accepted by a betting system located outside the state and the association and the betting system deduct different percentages from the amount handled in the parimutuel pool, the precise calculation and distribution of payments on winning tickets and breakage between the association and the betting system shall be on the basis of a calculation for distribution approved by the board.

(f) Breakage allocated pursuant to this section to an association conducting a racing meeting within this state shall be distributed in the same manner as would be breakage arising from wagers at the association in the absence of a combined parimutuel pool. This section does not apply to the disposition of breakage allocated to the betting system located outside of the state.

(g) If wagers accepted by a betting system located outside of this state are included in the parimutuel pool of an association conducting a racing meeting in this state, funds in the parimutuel pool attributable to unclaimed tickets relating to wagers accepted by the association conducting a racing meeting within the state shall be distributed in the same manner as unclaimed tickets relating to wagers accepted by that association in the absence of a combined parimutuel pool. Funds in the parimutuel pool attributable to unclaimed tickets related to wagers accepted by the betting system located outside of this state shall be allocated to that betting system, and this section does not otherwise apply to the disposition of those funds at that location outside of the state.

(Amended by Stats. 2005, Ch. 505, Sec. 5. Effective January 1, 2006.)