At Churchill Downs, players now have to place their bets several minutes before the race goes off. New York is following suit, but only for off-track bettors. And racing commissions in Illinois and Canada have banned the multi-race wagers involved in the recent bet-rigging scandals.
Across North America, racing officials are taking steps to secure their systems and boost consumer confidence in the wake of the sport's biggest scam, one in which three fraternity brothers allegedly used computers to net more than $3 million.
But in Maryland, the tracks, after an initial review of operations, have taken the opposite approach: They are waiting for industry-wide security audits to yield reform proposals.
"If you have a flat tire, don't change the oil," said Louis Raffetto, chief operating officer for Laurel Park and Pimlico Race Course.
Magna Entertainment Corp., which recently won approval to buy the Maryland tracks, is participating in an industry-wide review of security.
Raffetto said that when the scandal broke a month ago, he contacted AmTote International Inc., the tote company that provides the computer processing equipment and services to the Maryland tracks, to ask about security. He came away assured that AmTote's systems were secure.
An AmTote competitor, Autotote Corp. of Newark, Del., has been criticized for its security in the wake of admissions by a computer programmer working at Autotote's headquarters that he altered bets in the computer after the races had been run and forged thousands of dollars worth of betting tickets.
AmTote, based in Hunt Valley, has so far been untouched by the crisis - except for the general criticism bestowed on the tote industry for its security procedures. In Maryland, only Ocean Downs racetrack uses Autotote.
Michael Hopkins, deputy director of the Maryland Racing Commission, said he presented to the commissioners at a recent meeting the results of his own inquiry into the state of computer security at the local tracks and there were no calls for extraordinary measures. "At this point they are satisfied," he said.
At Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky., executives announced earlier this month that their racetracks and affiliated off-track facilities would no longer accept bets right up until the race goes off as they have historically done.
The change is designed to prevent wide swings in odds after the race starts. .
Churchill, whose namesake track is the home of the Kentucky Derby, also said it would stop taking wagers from telephone betting services that don't record incoming wagers - a layer of security that was missing at the phone betting company former Autotote employee Christopher Harn said he used for his bet-rigging.
The New York Racing Association, which governs the tracks in that state, announced that it will shut off betting from off-track sites as soon as the first horse enters the gate beginning Dec. 4. On-track players will still be able to gamble up until the race begins.
The Illinois Racing Board has banned all bets with more than three races on tracks in the state. The Canadian Pari-Mutuel Agency also has suspended multi-race bets in that nation pending further investigation.
Raffetto, however, said: "We're not going to change something just because Churchill is doing it or NYRA is doing it. There are a lot of fans who are happy we are not doing that."
Maryland's tracks offer Pick Four wagering, but not Pick Six. AmTote also has promised to eliminate the time lag in reporting wagers to the main betting hub - a delay that allowed Harn to change the bets.