Twin Spires resumes accepting ADW players in Texas
by Bob Duff
For Twin Spires, the battle was all about keeping a door from closing. Little did they know that they’d be opening up another potentially lucrative door in the process.
This month, Twin Spires is once again accepting ADW customers in Texas. It’s the first time that’s happened since a September 2013 court ruling led to Twin Spires exiting the Lone Star State.
Horse-racing bettors in Texas can thank Michigan for this newfound opportunity to place bets on horse racing from around the world via the internet.
A year-long court battle in Michigan was designed to prevent the Michigan Gaming Control Board (MGCB) from shuttering advance deposit wagering on horse racing in the state. The argument from the MGCB was that when Northville Downs ceased live racing in 2024, it left Michigan without any live racing in the state. According to Michigan horse racing rules, ADW could only be offered in conjunction with a track offering a live racing product.
A suit filed by Twin Spires in United States District Court, Western District of Michigan, Southern Division, argued that the MGCB was violating the United States Constitution through their enforcement of licensing provisions in the Michigan Horse Racing Law.
Lawyers for TwinSpires claimed that the federal Interstate Horseracing Act preempts the state law’s requirement to partner with in-state institutions, and that this requirement conflicts with the exclusive powers of the U.S. Congress over interstate commerce.
Twin Spires was awarded a temporary injunction, and when the MGCB appealed the ruling, Chief District Judge Hala Y. Jarbou sided with Twin Spires, making the temporary injunction permanent.
The argument put forth by Judge Jarbou in ruling in favor of Twin Spires is that with ADW wagers, the hub that is the site at which the online wagers are placed, is considered to be the state in which the wagering is regulated. In this instance, those states are North Dakota and Oregon.
In making this ruling, the judge also created an opening for Twin Spires to reenter the Texas market.
TEXAS WITHOUT ADW SINCE 2013
Twin Spires ceased to offer ADW wagering in Texas on Sept. 24, 2013, after the Texas Racing Commission (TRC) began enforcing a state law requiring all wagering on horse races by Texas residents to be placed in person. This law went into effect in Texas in 1986. It was amended in 2011 to include all forms of telephone and online wagering.
In 2012, the TRC issued a subpoena to Twin Spires, ordering that its ADW operation be shut down in Texas. The following year, a lawsuit filed by Twin Spires in Texas failed to convince a judge that they had a right to offer ADW wagering in the state. At that juncture, Twin Spires ceased to offer ADW wagering in Texas.
Texas doesn’t allow any form of online gambling in the state. Several attempts to legalize online gambling in Texas have met with failure in the state legislature.
Judge Jarbou’s ruling trumped the TRC’s regulation demanding in-person wagering. She ruled that Michigan has no right to regulate interstate wagering because federal law always overrides state law.
“If a state decides to allow pari-mutuel wagering, it cannot invade the Interstate Horseracing Act’s exclusive regulatory scheme for accepting interstate off-track wagers,” reads Jarbou’s ruling. “Once a state decides that pari-mutuel wagering is permissible within its borders, the federal field covers interstate off-track pari-mutuel wagers in that state.”
The same legal precedent could then be applied in Texas.
The reason why Texas is such an attractive market is twofold. Firstly, there is a thriving live horse racing product active in the state, so there are already plenty of horseplayers. Secondly, the 31.7 million people who reside in Texas make it the second-most populous state in the union.
Twin Spires is now offering the opportunity for Texas customers to sign up and access internet wagering on more than 300 tracks.
Twin Spires is undertaking this action in Texas on the down low. There’s been no public announcement that they are now taking customers from the Lone Star State. However, if you contact a Twin Spires account representative, they will confirm that Texas is now a market in which they offer their ADW services.
As well, Texas horseplayers have been posting on social media sites that they are no longer blocked from opening an account with Twin Spires.
It’s unclear at this stage whether Texas lawmakers are preparing to renew their previous battle with Twin Spires over the legality of ADW. Notably, unlike the majority of U.S. states, Texas has stayed quiet on the status of sweepstakes casinos and prediction markets operating in the state.
Attorneys general in many states have issued cease-and-desist orders to operators of sweepstakes casinos and prediction market sites, seeking to have them exit the state.
Perhaps Texas is looking at the Michigan ruling and accepting that this is a fight that they cannot win.
