IL sure knows how to take care of their gamblers !

[The Skipper]

 

Important Update for Illinois Players

We are writing to make you aware of an upcoming modification to the online wagering (ADW) law in Illinois. Effective August 26th, 2012, all licensed ADWs in Illinois including TwinSpires.com, must impose a .18% (.0018) surcharge on winning wagers and winnings from wagers. The fees collected from this surcharge will be paid to standardbred (harness) purse accounts in Illinois. Also, you may be aware that Off Track Betting locations (OTBs) in Illinois are required to impose a 2.5% surcharge on winning wagers and winnings from wagers.

Please note the results information on the simulcast feeds from our partner racetracks and the results displays of the TwinSpires.com web site will not reflect the deduction for the surcharge. You will be able to see your winnings in the "recall today's bets" section as well as in your "detailed account history" report.

 Example of surcharge:
 $100 win wager on a horse that pays $10 would return a total of $500. The surcharge would be 90 cents and the wager would return $499.10 to your TwinSpires.com account.

While TwinSpires.com will continue to offer it's "no fees" approach to online wagering, we are required to comply with this new regulation. We value your support of TwinSpires.com and will continue to build on the many free services we currently provide including; wagering services, live video, race replays, Brisnet Ultimate PPs and Super Stats, EZMoney deposits and withdrawals and TSC Elite Rewards.
 
If you have any questions about the surcharge, please contact player.services@twinspires.com.

Sincerely.
TwinSpires.com Team
 
Hey IL,  damn where is that finger emoticon ? Well anyway go f*ck yourselves IL racing ! 

[LVGaryD]

 

[mo doc n]

Skipper,

To be fair it was twinspires who bought out youbet.com and did not honor the contract with illinois harness racing so they were getting the signal for nothing and did not send the tracks or the horsemen a dime so you may want to cut us a little slack.

just sayin'

[Just Saying]

Skipper,

To be fair it was twinspires who bought out youbet.com and did not honor the contract with illinois harness racing so they were getting the signal for nothing and did not send the tracks or the horsemen a dime so you may want to cut us a little slack.

just sayin'

I have no reason to doubt you Mo, but punishing the bettors isn't the answer. The right thing would be to go after Twinspires for pirating the signal.

It will just be a matter of time before the pols decide the state needs the money more than the horsemen, then everybody will get screwed, and there won't be anything left of our sport. Then the geniuses in Spfld will dream up yet another tax on something else to makeup for 'the shortfall in revenue'.

[mo doc n]

I have no reason to doubt you Mo, but punishing the bettors isn't the answer. The right thing would be to go after Twinspires for pirating the signal.

Which is exactly what Illinois did went after twinspires and others , it just took this long for them to get it fixed. Twinspires is Churchill , Arlington etc. which was supposed to be feeding the T-Bred purses and youbet was to feed the Harness purses according to the agreements that were made, unfortunately twinspires bought out youbet and of course there was no provision for that happening so twinspires and others reaped all the profits from Harness without spending a dime. Sort of like recapture , the State of Illinois has not owned up to their end of it since 2001 yet it still remains a law

[mo doc n]

It will just be a matter of time before the pols decide the state needs the money more than the horsemen, then everybody will get screwed, and there won't be anything left of our sport. Then the geniuses in Spfld will dream up yet another tax on something else to makeup for 'the shortfall in revenue'.

This is a given and will never change

[The Skipper]

Skipper,

To be fair it was twinspires who bought out youbet.com and did not honor the contract with illinois harness racing so they were getting the signal for nothing and did not send the tracks or the horsemen a dime so you may want to cut us a little slack.

just sayin'

Mo,
    I could be wrong but the way I read that is ALL (legal) online betting will have that surcharge and ALL IL
OTB's will have yet another 2.5 % from winnings, now I really wouldn't mind but I feel like there are just a handful of honest hardworking horsemen left here and the rest are women beaters/killers, drug abusers, horse abusers, alcoholics, chemists, cheats and so on and then you have the dopes running all the harness racing in IL who give two shits about anyone but themselves and their own bottom line. I am strictly a gambler and I am sick of tired of every one inside whining and making the gamblers and the state and the riverboats pay to make them a profit, I have to be honest I hope IL racing gets nothing from Quinn let them clean house and run their business on its own with NO outside help . I was at the pace and have witnesses to this, one of the top 3 drivers in the country right now told me I am nuts for betting into the pools and not betting in a off shore account with rebates and trust me I am looking into it.

[mo doc n]

Skipper ,

I understand how you feel but there never would have been otb's , casinos and Internet wagering without the horsemens support , which is why deals were made to compensate for the loss of wagering dollars to the tracks and horsemen. There is much behind the scenes deals and laws which are being reneged on and these other companies know the average person is not aware of this and point fingers as to who is to blame even though they made the agreements in the first place and tried weasel out on them

Do you think horse racing can survive with the saturation of gambling?
Do you think the powers that be would have let it happen with out some form of compensation?

[The Skipper]

Skipper ,

I understand how you feel but there never would have been otb's , casinos and Internet wagering without the horsemens support , which is why deals were made to compensate for the loss of wagering dollars to the tracks and horsemen. There is much behind the scenes deals and laws which are being reneged on and these other companies know the average person is not aware of this and point fingers as to who is to blame even though they made the agreements in the first place and tried weasel out on them

Do you think horse racing can survive with the saturation of gambling?
Do you think the powers that be would have let it happen with out some form of compensation?

OK just answer this, will it survive without the gamblers ? Sorry about the laws and whatever deals were reneged on but at this point maybe it would be best to just shut harness racing down in IL, I for one would not shed a tear. Who's is to blame for all of this mess, the gamblers ?

[mo doc n]

Here is an article from 2007 , Twinspires has been paying NOTHING to the host harness tracks or horsemen , you're right it's not the gamblers fault , it's the greedy bastards who own these companies and the politicians who should own up to their short comings and robbery without a gun instead of blaming others!!!

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2008-02-01/sports/0801310902_1_balmoral-park-jim-edgar-illinois-racing-board

[The Skipper]

Well after reading this over many times I realised it won't really affect me at all because the surcharge is

on winnings only so when I go offshore they'll only lose about $3.84 cents per year. 

[beans and weenies]

Well after reading this over many times I realised it won't really affect me at all because the surcharge is

on winnings only so when I go offshore they'll only lose about $3.84 cents per year. 

I'm with ya. 

[tonyb147]

Mo,
    I could be wrong but the way I read that is ALL (legal) online betting will have that surcharge and ALL IL
OTB's will have yet another 2.5 % from winnings, now I really wouldn't mind but I feel like there are just a handful of honest hardworking horsemen left here and the rest are women beaters/killers, drug abusers, horse abusers, alcoholics, chemists, cheats and so on and then you have the dopes running all the harness racing in IL who give two shits about anyone but themselves and their own bottom line. I am strictly a gambler and I am sick of tired of every one inside whining and making the gamblers and the state and the riverboats pay to make them a profit, I have to be honest I hope IL racing gets nothing from Quinn let them clean house and run their business on its own with NO outside help . I was at the pace and have witnesses to this, one of the top 3 drivers in the country right now told me I am nuts for betting into the pools and not betting in a off shore account with rebates and trust me I am looking into it.

I was one of those witnesses. True.

I hate to say this but the above is spot-on from a gambler's perspective. I would never consider wagering off-shore as I'd just quit wagering all together before I went that route. How can you blame a gambler for doing it? After all, the gambler is just "looking out for himself" no different than everyone else.

I could rant and rant but it wouldn't do any good.