Final Segment on Mutual Pools

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Emergency Procedures
A. General
Many things can go wrong during a simulcast operation, including:

• Bad Data Line -Have a back up, either another data line or a dial up voice line.
• Faulty Modem -Always have a spare available.
• Power Loss -Have a cellular phone/fax machine on standby in tote room.
• Possibility of a refund -Print prominently in each day's program a Hold Harmless
Statement that informs your customers if technical difficulties arise beyond your
control, you may either pay off by calculating your own pool or cancel the simulcast
and refund all wagers, as per the pari-mutuel rules and regulations in your
jurisdiction.
B. Common Pool Wagering
i. Failure of Transmission of Stop Betting Signal
If the communications link between a Host and Guest is broken at zero minutes to post, the guest’s tote system must be configured to automatically stop betting to ensure tote system integrity.

For special bets such as the national wagers, the stop betting time may be several minutes
before post time to ensure all Guests can lock prior to the off time of the first race.

ii. Failure to Get A Pool To The Host
During system or communication malfunctions, the wagering data may be manually merged, provided such an attempt does not adversely affect the Host's pools. Whether or not a manual merge will be made is the decision of the Host's mutuel department, as addressed by the simulcast contract.

The procedures to be instituted in the event of a failure to electronically transmit pool data should be part of the formal simulcasting agreement.
In all instances, the track should reserve the right to accept a manual merge if it is determined the manual merge may corrupt the pool or cause an unacceptable delay.

If the Host does not accept the pool, the Guest has three alternatives depending on contractual and state or jurisdictional provisions:

• Pay Host track's prices, Refund pools, or • Separate Pool pricing.
The method of final resolution should be a set procedure and disclosed to the public.

iii. Manual Merges
Although the loss of data transmission connection has become increasingly rare, a simple
manual merge exercise can be completed in a very few minutes if the Guest can promptly
produce a manual merge form, suitable for faxing.

A manual merge occurs when the Host takes Guest pool information over the phone, by fax, or email and manually accesses its system to incorporate that information before calculating prices.
The manual merge process can be summarized in five steps: 1) Close, then clear any guest
data in pools; 2) Input total guest dollars on winning combination for each pool; 3) Input total guest losing dollar in same pool; 4) verify total dollars per pool matrix equate to Guest recorded total per pool usually by a secondary method (e.g. telephone call); 5) Incorporate (re-merge) Guest matrix into total common pool matrix to recalculate winning dollars, total dollars , and price.

Manual merges are disliked by all participants. Problems faced by Host tracks include:

• Disruption of live card with long delays for entering and checking data and
calculating official prices.
• Integrity of data received in merge can be questionable. Because of infrequency,
the procedure is usually not completed efficiently.
• Merging procedures not standardized – tote and mutuels should be trained better.
• Lack of proper concern from many Guest tracks, who may still be selling tickets
while problems necessitating merges have not been resolved.
The following procedures will make manual merges more acceptable to Host tracks:

• Limit the number of manual merges by a Guest to instances of rare circumstances.
• Require cellular phone, fax backup, and e-mail in all mutuel departments.
• Improve technology to increase transmission speed of manually merged data.
• Improve integrity of data by requiring audit after the fact and verification of Guest
lock time.
• Practice manual merges periodically, so all parties are familiar with the procedure.
• When a problem occurs, Guest should lock pools, run reports, begin faxing/e-mail,
and then attempt to re-link.
As part of its due diligence audit of the manual merge, the host should produce a prices report for the Guest before going official with the prices.

C. Separate Pools
i. General
A separate pool simulcast can be affected only by a local tote problem or an error in program information dissemination from the Host, which may be corrected in a timely manner. Procedures involving invalid pools and refunds are the same as for a live race. Some jurisdictions require a video feed or Stewards phone call to verify the lock time and the OOF.

ii. Rebuilding Separate Pools
All tote systems have the capability of re-building pools given enough time.

Track management must decide how long it can wait before announcing a decision, short of riling the public. Most pools can be rebuilt and the public satisfied, averting the frustration and problem of refunds. Depending on state or jurisdictional regulations, choices are somewhat limited. Action should be taken as quickly as possible with the betting public's interest being the major concern.
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