New York Racing Association Seeking to Offer Online Mobile Betting

More online horseracing carve-out exploitations! Uggh, give me a break! It almost seems like the U.S. horseracing industry had it all planned from the very beginning. Following my recent blog post about a new Canadian based online lottery and horseracing service that will be legally offered in the U.S., more horseracing interests are making moves to capitalize on their carve-outs from the UIGEA, which bans online casino gambling, poker and sports wagers, but protects fantasy sports betting, horse racing and lotteries - all the name of protecting children and gambling addicts...obviously.

Now its the New York Racing Association who is ringing phones, figuratively and literally. The Association recently announced they are going to adopt a new application called mWager, which will allow Windows based mobile phone users to place wagers on New York horseracing events with their handsets. Not sure who exactly owns Windows based cell phones, but I have a suspicion its all those financial business guys working downtown. I certainly don't think mWager was chosen randomly.

Anyhow, the whole ordeal has to first be approved by the New York Racing and Wagering Board, which will undoubtedly happen. When it does, bettors will be able to access a pin-protected online betting interface that will provide extensive stats on horses and trainers, real-time odds (and although I have not confirmed this), most likely a betting interface and cashier for making deposits and withdrawals. That's what mobile gambling is all about - even when its used for online casino gambling purposes. Convenience, convenience, convenience.

Apparently, mWager is brand new (I couldn't even find a website for them), and comes from the wireless technology developers at Sona Mobile. From what I've gathered so far, mWager will enable wagers (duh), offer pre-race research and post-race information, as well as enable subscribers to watch races in real time. Sure, it sounds pretty cool. I just can't get excited about it knowing the UIGEA is behind its existence in some indirect way or another. Note: It is at this moment I have realized just how deeply bitter I am about the UIGEA. Or is it just American politics? Probably both.

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