[pick4]

Originally Posted by pick4

There is no question of if they do that, NYRA rewards combines seperate tickets. They sent out a letter mid year in 2007 explaining this.

http://www.drf.com/drfNewsArticle.do...2&subs=0&arc=1

Here's a link which explains:

Account wagering singled out

Two weeks ago in this space, the question was posed why the New York State Racing and Wagering Board has not acted on several proposed rule changes that would benefit horseplayers, including consistent late-scratch rules, reducing required field sizes for exotic wagers, and introducing fractional-betting minimums consistent with other states.

It turns out the board has in fact been dealing with one issue dear to horseplayers - but in a destructive and unnecessary way.

The already bizarre and unfair Internal Revenue Service rules regarding racetrack winnings have an obscure provision regarding "aggregate withholding." It requires that tracks combine multiple winning $1 tickets from customers to see if identical winning wagers add up to exceed the threshholds for reporting and withholding. A customer who cashed two separate $1 tickets on a $312 trifecta would, in theory, have his proceeds reported to the IRS under this aggregation, because while $312 is under the mark, $624 just exceeds it.

Racetracks unofficially ignore the rule since it is impossible to enforce in a mutuel-window environment. Bettors have learned to buy tickets at the lowest minimums and cash them separately. Everyone understands that the IRS rules are absurd, raise no legitimate revenue since 99 percent of players do not show a net profit that should be taxed, and do nothing but take money out of circulation while driving customers to seek out illegal 10-percenters to cash their tickets. The racing industry sensibly ignores the aggregate withholding provision the way that most policemen sensibly ignore the jaywalking statutes on empty streets.

But recently someone at the New York State Racing and Wagering Board decided it would be a good idea to hold some of New York's horseplayers to the letter of a bad law that no one else enforces, by taking advantage of the paper trail provided by account wagering. NYRA was forced to send letters to its NYRA Rewards members last week, apologetically telling them that the provision would henceforth be strictly applied, and that money will be deducted from your account if identical $1 tickets combine to put you over the withholding threshhold. At exactly the time when the state and the tracks are trying to increase business, partially through expanded account-wagering with Internet access, the board is unilaterally imposing a unique penalty on people using those accounts.

A regulatory agency can't officially advocate skirting the federal tax code, but this was a case where there was no reason to raise the issue at all. It is the increasingly typical behavior of a hostile agency that seems to regard the betting public an adversary to be punished rather than as citizens to be protected.