Challenges to race fields legislation

Online bookmakers are looking at ways to challenge the legislation which requires them to pay for publishing NSW race fields while high profile bagman Tom Waterhouse will launch his case in the NSW Supreme Court this week.

Waterhouse is asking the court for a ruling as to whether his telephone betting operation should be classed in the same category as online bookmakers.

As from September 1, wagering operators using NSW race fields without approval from the relevant controlling body are committing an offence with breaches attracting severe penalties ranging from fines to jail sentences.

The race fields legislation allows the controlling bodies, Racing NSW, Harness Racing NSW or Greyhound Racing NSW), to set conditions for approval including a fee of 1.5 per cent of wagering turnover.

The legislation was introduced to try to halt the leakage of money to corporate bookmakers, most of whom are based in the Northern Territory including online giant Sportingbet Australia.

Chief executive of Sportingbet Australia, Michael Sullivan, says he and his fellow bookmakers will continue to explore legal avenues.

"We are still awaiting legal opinion," Sullivan said.

"We (Sportingbet) started paying the 1-1/2 per cent from September 1 but I can nearly guarantee we will be expending some sort of appeal to the courts.

"We believe there are huge flaws in the way the legislation has been regulated in order to try to force us out of business.

"With the 1.5 per cent turnover tax the business will go under."

Sullivan said and other Northern Territory-based operations were discussing the possibility of a "class action type situation" against the legislation.

Wagering company Tabcorp will launch its own Northern Territory bookmaking operation later this month and says it will pay any levies imposed.

The TAB estimates around $4 billion is turned over by the Northern Territory bookies each year.

The legislation will generate around $25 million for the NSW racing industry, which Racing NSW chief executive Peter V'Landys says is needed to keep people in the game.

"This is money that should be going to our participants, particularly those on $33,000 a year," V'Landys said.

"Unless we can increase their wages, we will lose these people.

"These people - stablehands, trackwork riders and the like - are vital to the industry, something that really hit home during the equine influenza crisis last year.

"The Northern Territory bookmakers have been taking money out of New South Wales for years."