Unlike the National Football League, the National Basketball Association, Major League Baseball, the National Hockey League, and all other national sports organizations, horseracing in America is rudderless - with no central regulating authority, no national business model, and no consistency even in the collection and disbursement of its own revenues. As a result, historical precedents and an aversion towards efficiently applying current technology have exacerbated a decline in racing's pari-mutuel volume, which is the total amount of money wagered at tracks and in "off-track" or simulcast outlets, including the increasingly popular "advance deposit wagering" (ADW) accounts.
A half-century ago, horseracing in America was a collection of politically-appointed fiefdoms (state racing commissions) overseeing tracks that derived 100 percent of their (legal) wagering handle through their own pari-mutuel machines and had virtually no competition for the wagering dollar. In 2008, American horseracing is still a collection of fiefdoms with a few self-proclaimed "national" organizations, but almost 90 percent of its wagering handle now goes through off-track outlets, with an ever-shrinking share being wagered at the sites where the races actually are run. In competition for the gambling dollar, state lotteries, casino gambling, Power Ball, video lottery terminals (slot machines), and sports betting have all become ubiquitous.
The last major legislation affecting horseracing - at the state or federal level - was the Interstate Horseracing Act of 1978, which was signed into law before the word Internet had entered the dictionary. Twenty years later, off-track handle accounted for over 80 percent of pari-mutuel handle, and that share has continued expanding in the ensuing decade, but agreements and percentages governing "take out" - the amount withheld by tracks to fund purses, expenses, etc. - of off-track handle varies significantly from guidelines governing on-track handle. Increasingly, disputes are arising over which groups in horseracing (tracks, horse owners, state revenue departments, or bettors) get what percentage of the off-track handle and which ADW companies should be allowed - or encouraged - to offer wagering on racing at various tracks. These disputes have led to the following developments: