WASHINGTON -- A California gambler yesterday filed suit against Autotote Systems Inc., alleging that the company's widely used wagering equipment is so badly designed and operated that honest bettors have lost millions of dollars to fraud.
Jimmy "The Hat" Allard, who described himself as an actor turned professional "racehorse analyst," said the admission of bet rigging by a former Autotote computer programmer prompted him to file the class-action suit.
"For years, I have said I believe somebody is getting into the computers and I believe somebody is past-posting us," Allard said at a news conference at the National Press Club. Past posting is placing a bet after a race has begun.
Wearing his trademark black fedora, Allard, 48, who said he has played small roles in hundreds of movies and TV shows, ticked off the suspicious wagering activity he has witnessed. Several times, he has won Pick Six and Pick Four wagers -- in which the winners of several consecutive races must be selected -- only to find himself sharing the payout pool with more winners than he thinks the law of probability permits.
Allard's attorney, Joseph L. Lisoni of Pasadena, Calif., said he will review Autotote records and the tax declarations that gamblers file when they win big bets, seeking fraudulent betting similar to that revealed in the Oct. 26 Breeders' Cup "Ultra Pick Six."
A Baltimore man, Derrick Davis, 29, was the only person to win. But the $3.1 million payout was frozen by investigators who suspected his strategy of picking only the winners in the first four races and all the horses in the final two.
Christopher Harn, 29, has since admitted to altering Davis' bets in the computer after four of the races had been run, just before the data was transmitted to a hub at the track where the races were run. Autotote fired its former employee, who belonged to the same Drexel University fraternity as Davis. Harn pleaded guilty to fraud and money laundering and awaits sentencing.
Davis and another former frat brother, Glen DaSilva, 29, of New York, have been charged with fraud in the Breeders' Cup incident and two other wagers made several weeks earlier. They have said through their attorneys that they are innocent.
Allard said he bet on the Breeders' Cup Pick Six, but did not choose even five of the correct horses, making him ineligible for a consolation prize if Davis' win is disqualified. But Allard said he is sure he has lost money to such fraud in other bets.
The suit, filed in the Los Angeles District of California's Superior Court, alleges that Autotote "placed into the stream of commerce a pari-mutuel wagering system containing ineffective security safeguards."
The lawsuit alleges negligence and breach of contract, among other things. Lisoni is seeking court sanction to represent thousands of bettors around the country who have placed multi-race wagers through Autotote systems over the past 15 years.
Lisoni said evidence in the case is not limited to exotic wagers. He said he has been contacted by witnesses claiming to have seen bets made after a race has started on an Autotote self-serve wagering terminal at a California track -- signs, he said, of negligence.
Rhonda Barnat, a spokeswoman for Autotote, said yesterday that the company had not seen the lawsuit and could not comment specifically. But, she said, "The allegations are without merit."
Autotote, of Newark, Del., processes more than 60 percent of the thoroughbred racing bets in the United States. Its computers process bets, calculate odds and sort the winners from the losers. The company is owned by Scientific Games Corp. of New York.
Maryland's major thoroughbred racetracks rely on a competitor, AmTote Inc., which Lisoni said uses superior security technology.
The lawsuit demands that bettors whose payouts were diminished by fraudulent winners be paid their rightful winnings along with punitive damages. Lisoni estimates "tens of millions" of dollars have been stolen.
Bennett Liebman, director of the Racing & Wagering Program at the Albany Law School in New York, said it will be a tough lawsuit to win.
"On the face of it, it sounds rather like a grab for publicity but who knows what evidence they will find?" Liebman said.
Lisoni said he targeted Autotote because for eight years it has held the contract to process wagers for the major tracks in Southern California that his client frequents.
Lisoni said he would accept mediation, an option that California courts permit.