Fairmount Park demands 'outs' money from inter-track courses

Fairmount Park filed suit against seven race tracks claiming they owe the Collinsville betting facility uncashed tickets since January 2000 for simulcast and inter-track wagering.

The suit, filed July 1 in St. Clair County Circuit Court, also asks the court for declaratory judgment as to the term "licensee," so that it can keep outs money from wagers placed at any of its facilities.

Represented by Charles Hamilton of Belleville and John Long of Troy, Fairmount Park names Arlington Park Racecourse, Balmoral Racing Club, Hawthorne Race Course, Suburban Downs, National Jockey Club, Associates Racing Association and Maywood Park Trotting Association.

"Since January 1, 2000, the plaintiff Fairmount Park, Inc. has been entitled...to retain in its possession all outs money from wagers placed at any of its facilities, regardless of whether the wagers were placed as part of on-track wagering, inter-track wagering, simulcast wagering or wagering on a supplemental interstate simulcast," the suit claims.

Fairmount Park is seeking restitution and prejudgment interest on outs money it was entitled to from each defendant since Jan. 1, 2000.

"The defendants have not distributed the expired outs money back to the the plaintiff Fairmount Park, and its purse accounts, and, so have been unjustly enriched," according to the suit.

In the fifth count of the six-count suit, Fairmount Park alleges the defendants illegally keep "penny breakage" from winnings in simulcast wagering.

The suit claims a host track should divide simulcast wagering receipts among licensees mathematically by applying surcharges against winning wagers, breaking the amount payable of winning wagers down to the nearest dime and distributing it to each Illinois non-host licensee.

"The defendants disregard the fraction of a cent by rounding down to the nearest cent before performing the three mathematical operations," the suit states.