Wagering on horses at the thoroughbred racing tracks at New York could soon be as easy as pushing buttons on your mobile phones like in BlackBerry. On August 29th, 2008, officials from the state Racing and Betting board gave their conditional approval to a proposal that will bring wagering from the pari-mutuel windows to mobile wagering. Next week, a group of one hundred patrons who are registered on the online betting system of the New York Racing Association's online betting system, will be invited to conduct a trial run of the new platform, which will first be featured on BlackBerry devices.
Daniel Toomey, a spokesperson for the Racing and Wagering Board said that with the board's approval, NYRA is able to move a little close in offering this betting platform when the final testing is finished. Provided that the test run is successful, the hand-held digital betting will be expanded to include NYRA's entire online players within the next 6 weeks. The main goal is to expand the service to iPhones and digital devices running on Windows CE so that players can easily access NYRA's live betting pool from wherever they are.
NYRA spokesperson Tom Thill said that you can check the racing results through your mobile phone wherever you are. Wagering from a hand-held device will have all of the features include with the online gaming platform includes information on horses and odds, scratches and race results.
The hand-held betting platform will feature all of the same bets offered at the trackside wagering windows. The brand new online platform was made possible after the state Legislature legalized some forms of Internet gaming in 2006. NYRA launched the Rewards system shortly after receiving its final approval on April 2007.
September 17, 2008
Nancy Parker