CHAPTER 219 - DELAWARE RACING COMMISSION
AN ACT TO AMEND CHAPTER 163 OF THE REVISED CODE OF DELAWARE, 1935, ENTITLED "DELAWARE RACING COMMISSION", BEING CHAPTER 62 OF VOLUME 38, LAWS OF DELAWARE, AS AMENDED BY CHAPTER 112 OF VOLUME 40, LAWS OF DELAWARE, RELATING TO EXPENSES OF COMMISSION, DAYS OF RACING, APPLICATION OF PROFITS, AND COMMISSION ON POOLS.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the State of Delaware in General Assembly met:
Section 1. That Chapter 163 of the Revised Code of Delaware, 1935, be and the same is hereby amended by striking out and repealing 5500. Section 5, 5502. Section 7, 5506. Section 11, and 5510. Section 15 of said Chapter, said Sections being Sections 5, 7, 12, and 16 of Chapter 62, Volume 38, Laws of Delaware, as amended by Chapter 112 of Volume 40, Laws of Delaware, and by inserting in lieu thereof respectively, the following new Sections:
5500. Section 5. The salary of the members of the Commission shall be One Dollar per annum. The salaries of clerks and other employees, and the rental of offices and other expenses of the Commission, which expenses shall be deemed to include premiums on surety bonds of members of the Commission required in Section 3 hereof, shall not exceed the sum of Six Thousand Dollars ($6,000.00) per annum.
Any person or persons, association or corporation, upon applying to the Commission for a license to conduct a race meeting within the State of Delaware during any calendar year, shall, at the time of such application, pay to the said Commission a fee of Three Thousand Dollars ($3,000.00).
Any person or persons, association or corporation who shall be granted a license by the Commission to conduct a race meeting within the State of Delaware, during any calendar year, shall, at the time such license is granted, pay to the said Commission a fee of Two Thousand Dollars ($2,000.00).
5502. Section 7. Any person or persons, association or corporation desiring to conduct a race meeting within the State of Delaware during any calendar year, shall apply to the Delaware Racing Commission for a license so to do. Such application shall be filed with the Secretary of the Commission on or before a day to be fixed by the Commission. Such application shall specify the days on which such racing is desired to be conducted or held, and such application shall be in such form and supply such data and information, including a blueprint of track and specifications of surface of same and blueprint and specifications of buildings and grandstand of the applicant, as the Commission may prescribe, which said blueprints and specifications shall be subject to the approval of the Commission, which, at the expense of the applicant, may order such engineering examination thereof as to the Commission may seem necessary. The erection and construction of the track, grandstand and buildings of any applicant for a license to conduct racing under this Act, shall be subject to the inspection of the Commission which, at the expense of the applicant, may employ such inspectors as it may consider necessary for said purpose. Said Racing Commission shall, on or before the 15th day of January of each year, award all dates for racing in the State of Delaware within the current year, but the said dates so awarded shall not exceed thirty days in the aggregate, and the decision of the Commission on the award of all such dates shall be final. The Commission shall have power to reject any application for a license for any cause which it may deem sufficient and the action of the Commission shall be final. No one person, corporation or association shall be given a license to conduct racing for more than twenty days in one year, and no person, corporation or association shall be given a license to hold more than two meetings in any one year, nor shall more than two meetings for racing, with an aggregate of twenty days, be held in any one year on any one track within the State of Delaware; provided, however, in event that in any year only one applicant to the Delaware Racing Commission for a license to conduct racing within the State of Delaware shall qualify for a license on or before the 15th day of January in said year, the Commission may authorize said sole licensee to hold one or more meetings for said year for an aggregate of thirty days.
Ten days before any racing meet may be held under this Act, the person or persons, association or corporation licensed to conduct the meet shall deposit with the Commission insurance against personal injury liability which may be sustained at such meet, said insurance to be in amount approved by the Commission with premium or premiums prepaid.
Not less than five days prior to the opening of any meet authorized by the Commission, the Commission, at the expense of the licensee for said meet, shall cause to be made an inspection of the track, grandstand and buildings where said meet is to be held, and unless said track, grandstand and buildings are found to be safe for animals and persons, or are rendered safe therefor prior to the opening of the meet, the license for said meet shall be withdrawn.
5506. Section 11. Every person or persons, association or corporation licensed to hold racing meets within the State of Delaware as hereinbefore provided, shall pay to the Commission a tax of 20c on each admission, employees excepted, on each day of said meet. The licensee may if it desires collect such amount from each ticket holder in addition to the amount or amounts charged for such ticket of admission. Accurate records and books shall at all times be kept and maintained by the licensee showing the number of admissions, employees of the licensee excepted, on each racing day of each horse racing meet. The Commission, or its duly authorized representative or representatives, shall at all reasonable times have access to the admission records of any licensee for the purpose of examining and checking the same, and ascertaining whether or not the proper amount has been, or is being, paid the State of Delaware as herein provided. The Commission may also, from time to time, require sworn statements of the number or numbers of such paid admissions and prescribe blanks upon which such reports shall be made.
Every person or persons, association or corporation, licensed to hold racing meets within the State of Delaware, as hereinbefore provided, shall on or before the first day of December of each year return to the Commission a full statement, under oath, of their receipts from all sources whatsoever during the calendar year, and of all expenses and disbursements, all itemized in the manner and form as shall be directed by the Commission, and with such allowances as may be approved by the Commission showing the net revenue from all sources derived by such person or persons, association or corporation, engaged in or conducting horse racing. The cost of any alterations, additions, changes or improvements made or proposed upon the property owned or leased by any such person and used by it for the convenience and comfort of the public and of the horse owners with the approval of the Commission shall be deducted as running expenses in such statements.
The Commission shall allow a licensee to reserve from its earnings after provision for the taxes and charges provided by the statutes of the State of Delaware for the use of the State, a reasonable annual depreciation on the buildings and equipment used in the holding of racing meets within the State of Delaware which sum so allowed as depreciation may be used by the licensee in the retirement of his or its funded debt and/or preference stock. From any net revenue resulting after the payment of the taxes and charges provided by the statutes of the State of Delaware for the use of the State, and after the deductions for operating expenses and depreciation charges and the payment of Federal taxes, if any, the Commission shall allow a licensee a sum not to exceed 45 of the capital investment of the licensee in his or its track, grandstand and equipment employed in holding racing meets as return on said investment. All net revenue of the licensee remaining shall be set aside and employed by the licensee for working capital, for the retirement of outstanding debt and/or preference stock, for the maintenance and development of purses, stakes and rewards, and for the maintenance and improvement of the tracks and buildings of the licensee.
Any licensee failing or refusing to pay the amount found to be due by the Commission as the tax on admissions shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and upon conviction thereof shall be liable to a fine of not more than Twenty-five Thousand Dollars ($25,000.00) in addition to the amount due the Commission. All fines up to the amount found to be due the Commission and paid into Court by a licensee found guilty of violating this Section, shall be transmitted and paid over by the Clerk of the Court to the Commission.
5510. Section 15. Within the enclosure of any horse race meeting licensed and conducted under this Act, but not elsewhere, the wagering or betting on horse races by the use of parimutuel machines or totalizators is hereby authorized and permitted.
The Delaware Racing Commission shall have power in its discretion, to grant a license or licenses to any person, firm or corporation, to make, conduct and sell pools by the use of parimutuel machines or totalizators, for the purpose of receiving wagers or bets on horse races within the enclosure of any race meeting licensed and conducted under this Act, but not otherwise, under such regulations as the Commission shall prescribe.
The Commission shall have power to prescribe regulations governing the granting of applications for licenses, the granting of licenses, and the conditions under which any licensee may conduct, sell, or make any such pool.
The qualification of any licensee shall be such as to afford a reasonable belief that the licensee will be financially responsible and will conduct the business of operating said pools in a proper and orderly manner. A licensee to make, conduct and sell pools by the use of parimutuel machines or totalizators, must be a person, association or corporation licensed to conduct a race meeting under this Act.
The Delaware Racing Commission shall have power to require the keeping of books and records by a licensee of a parimutuel or totalizator pool in such form, or in such manner, as the Commission shall prescribe. The Commission shall also have the power to regulate the duties of any employee of any such licensee, and to visit, investigate, and to place expert accountants and such other persons as it may deem necessary in the of or place of business of any person, corporation or association licensed to operate a parimutuel or totalizator pool for the purpose of satisfying itself that the Commission's rules and regulations are strictly complied with. The Commission shall also have power to issue, under the hand of its Chairman and the seal of the Commission, subpoenas for the attendance of witnesses and the production of books, papers and documents of a licensee, before the Commission, and to administer oath or affirmation to such witnesses whenever in the judgment of the said Commission it may be necessary for the effectual discharge of its duty. If any person shall refuse to obey any such subpoena, or to testify, or to produce any books, papers or documents, then any member of the Commission may apply to the Superior Court of the county in which he or the Commission may be sitting, and, thereupon, the said court shall issue its subpoena requiring said person to appear and testify, or to produce such books, papers and documents before the Commission. Any person failing to obey or refusing to obey a subpoena of the said court shall be deemed guilty of contempt of court and shall be punished accordingly. False swearing on the part of any witness shall be deemed perjury and shall be punished as such.
All licenses for the operation of parimutuel or totalizator pools shall be revocable at any time, without hearing, in the absolute discretion of the Delaware Racing Commission.
Every person, association or corporation engaged in the business of conducting a race meeting under this Act shall pay to the Delaware Racing Commission, for the use of the State of Delaware, a sum equal to three per cent (370) of the total contributions to all parimutuel and totalizator pools conducted or made on any and every race track licensed under this Act, and on every race at such track.
The Delaware Racing Commission shall authorize commissions on parimutuel or totalizator pools to the person, firm or corporation operating a race meeting, which said commissions shall be a sum equal to three per cent (3%) of the total contributions to all parimutuel and totalizator pools conducted or made at said race meeting, and every race at said meeting, plus the odd cents of all redistributions to be made on all parimutuel or totalizator pool contributions exceeding the sum equal to the next lowest multiple of five.
In addition to the commissions permitted to the person, firm or corporation operating a race meeting under the provisions of the preceding paragraph the Commission shall authorize as further commissions a sum not exceeding one and one-half per cent (11/2%) of the total contributions on all parimutuel or totalizator pools to the person, firm or corporation operating a race meeting, and at every race at said meet, so long only however, as the said person, firm or corporation shall have outstanding any funded debt incurred or preference stock issued by him or it in financing the purchase of his or its lands and the construction of his or its buildings and equipment thereon, which said further commissions, after deductions of any taxes thereon, shall be used solely for the purpose of retiring said funded debt and/or preference stock; provided, however, that in no event and at no track licensed under this Act shall the commissions allowed to the person, firm or corporation operating a race meeting when added to the amount payable to the Delaware Racing Commission from such pools, for the use of the State of Delaware, exceed seven and one-half per cent (71/25) of the total contributions to all parimutuel or totalizator pools conducted or made at any track, plus the odd cents of all redistributions to be made on all parimutuel or totalizator pool contributions exceeding the sum equal to the next lowest multiple of five.
Section 2. That all Acts and parts of Acts inconsistent with any of the provisions of this Act be and the same are hereby repealed to the extent of, and only to the extent of, any such inconsistency or inconsistencies.
Approved April 7, 1937.