NEWS
Tote malfunction prompts refunds at Penn National
Posted: Thursday, May 21, 2009 7:00 PM
by John Scheinman
A malfunctioning router at the communications hub for United Tote in Hillsboro, Oregon, led to betting pools remaining open following the start of the second race at Penn National Race Course on Wednesday night, a tote official said.
After discovering the software failure, Penn National management decided to refund the approximately $152,000 wagered on the race rather than going through the time-intensive process of figuring out which tickets were purchased before the race began, said Chris McErlean, vice president of racing for Penn National.
McErlean said the stewards at the Grantville, Pennsylvania, track realized there was a problem when they could not close and lock the pools with the button from their console. He said they immediately called the mutuel department to report the problem. The tote officials on site also could not lock the pools for the race.
Twodoorsdown, owned by Galby Stable and trained by Michael Salvaggio Jr., won the $5,000 claiming race.
“We were potentially looking at significant amounts wagered past post,” McErlean said. “We felt it was fairest to declare the race a no-contest.”
The malfunction at Penn National followed a similar incident at Hollywood Park on May 16, when a communications system failed to close the pools to simulcast outlets on the ninth race. That system is managed by Scientific Games Racing, one of the three principal tote companies in the country, along with United Tote and AmTote.
“I don’t call this past post; this is a communications failure,” United Tote President Jeff True said of the Penn National malfunction.
True said that after the router failed, a backup router took over and continued moving the wagering information.
“Then the primary router starts recovering; it says, ‘I’m OK now; give me that traffic back.’ We could not send a stop betting message while these routers were reorganizing,” True said. “We knew these things were going on.”
True said United Tote discovered that the manufacturer of the router, Cisco Systems, had experienced similar malfunctions and provided a patch for the software.
Information on how much money wagered after the race began was unavailable, True said, because the inter-tote system protocol does not immediately transfer ticket detail.
“It will take a day or two,” True said, “but it’s a moot point because we refunded the whole race.”
McErlean said the Thoroughbred Racing Protective Bureau is investigating the incident. He said the track had received ten to 15 telephone calls and about a dozen e-mails from people saying they held winning tickets for the race.
“We have not been able to verify those claims,” McErlean said. “We don’t have any plans at this time for compensation, which is not to say we won’t be looking at that.”
McErlean said there was confusion at the track immediately after the race because the judges posted the “Inquiry” sign on the tote board. The track announcer said the race was official and payoff prices were forthcoming.
The track announcer then said the race had been declared a no-contest and that refunds would be made. McErlean said Penn National could have done a better job informing simulcast customers because no graphics were posted on the screen alerting bettors of the change.
“At the end of the day, the impact is on the customer,” McErlean said. “We’re going to get some flak from people about refunding, but we took the path that protected everybody and kept everybody on an even playing field rather than exposing people to a pool that may have had past-posting wagers.”
John Scheinman is a Maryland-based Thoroughbred Times correspondent
