The NSW TAB has conducted dummy race days in Las Vegas and is technically able to take bets, according to its general manager, Allen Windross.
NSW races would be broadcast into Las Vegas casinos by Kerry Packer’s Sky Channel, he said yesterday.
The move comes after the ACTTAB has set up off-shore betting in Vanuatu with an agreement with a company called VITAB.
Both systems will allow punters overseas access to the Australian pools. The VITAB deal has been criticised because big Australian punters might be able to bet through Vanuatu (with a discount or kickbacks) and thereby deprive the Government and the racing industry of revenue.
The ACT Government, however, says its arrangements will VITAB will preclude this.
Mr Windross said the NSW TAB had not got to the stage of contracts. The TAB, NSW Treasury and the Minister would ensure the contract precluded a leakage of Australian money.
“”But I don’t have a proposal on the table, so I can’t comment on that,” he said.
The NSW TAB has a turnover of $3.2 billion a year. The total Australian TAB turnover is about $9 billion a year (about the size of the defence budget) with a return to government, the racing industry and the TABs of about $1.2 billion a year.
Mr Windross said the tests had been done through the Las Vegas Dissemination Company, which was licensed by the Nevada Gaming Board. That company arranged links between casinos and all major US racetracks. The could now be extended to NSW races using the Australian betting pool. Bets taken in Las Vegas would be converted to Australian dollars and winnings converted back to US dollars.
I understand Sky Channel is still negotiating with the Australian Jockey Club for rights to transmit the picture of the races to Law Vegas. A spokeswoman for Sky Channel managing director David Dodds said yesterday that he had no comment.
Racing sources say that Sky Channel either had or is getting rights from non-AJC meetings outside Sydney. They say that punters in Las Vegas would neither know nor care whether it was a metropolitan race. It would just be an Australian race.
Mr Windross said the NSW TAB had the technical ability to do the betting in Las Vegas on all NSW races; it was up to Sky Channel to organise the rights for the transmission of the pictures.
The racing sources say the Australian races would attract a lot of interest in Las Vegas because of the time difference. They would be run through the night, when Las Vegas is most active.
Racing sources say the off-shore exposure of Australian TAB pools will ultimately cause the weakening or break down of the government monopoly of off-course betting and will therefore lessen the take of governments and the return to the racing industry, the lowering of prize-money and the lowering of values of racehorses.
The Victorian Government is expected to announce today the full-scale privatisation of its TAB. That is likely to result in more aggressive marketing and greater returns to punters at the expense of government and the industry. To date all state TABs have tacitly agreed not to compete by lowering margins or offering cash inducements to punters, thus securing the government take.