JIMMIE SAYS … Racing needs to be dragged into modernity

Having emphasised in previous columns the lengths to which successful jurisdictions go to legislatively support purses — boosting tax revenue, assisting the viability of farms, breeders, owners, professional groups such as jockeys, trainers, grooms, stable hands, plus thousands of businesses and employees depending on horse racing — it is hoped that the question never again arises as to whether prize money offered by any promoter at Caymanas Park should be supplemented by a percentage of monies extracted by entities such as the Betting Gaming and Lotteries Commission (BGLC) and the Jamaica Racing Commission (JRC).
Let’s put the JRC aside, give that entity a bye, or as Jamaicans are wont to say, ‘a bligh’. After all, it is the JRC that administrates and polices all things racing in Jamaica outside of the breeding industry, which really shouldn’t be so, but that’s for another day.
The JRC’s audited income for 2024-25 stood at $680.47 million, estimated to be $622.40m for 2025-26 and $670.90m projected for 2026-27.
Let’s pretend that the JRC is wisely spending its operating income, administrating and taking care of horse-racing business to the tune of an average $658 million per year, why should the BGLC, with whom the JRC is undergoing a merger, continue to rake in sums from betting on horse racing such as its audited $154.36 million for 2024-25?
The BGLC’s income on betting (levy, fees, and fines) is estimated at $178.51 million for 2025-26, a sum rather oddly halved to a projected $90.56 million for 2026-27.
Something isn’t adding up. Why would the JRC project an increase of $35.04 million in gross profit tax on horse racing bets for 2026-27 whereas the BGLC is anticipating an $87.95 million cut ($178.51 milion-$90.56 million) of the same betting dollar, a 50.73 per cent difference?
That, too, is for another day. However, what role does the BGLC play, a body that does not administrate or police horse racing, certainly not in the least as the JRC does, to be deserving of an audited $154.36 million of horse-racing revenue, estimated to be $178.51 million for 2025-26, while purses are restricted to the promoter’s 49 per cent of gross-gaming revenue on local-racing sales?
The BGLC, through its administration and policing of ‘Lottery Activities - $1.5b’, ‘Gaming Machines - $342m’, ‘Commercial Bingo/Prize Competition - $24m’, ‘Interest Income- $225.31m’ and ‘Other Income - $302.59m’, reaped more than $2.45 billion in audited income for 2024-25 outside of $154.36 million derived from levies, fees, and fines on horse-racing betting.
Horse-racing revenue is but a drop in the bucket to the BGLC’s income, a real joke. However, Jamaicans are also wont to say, ‘What is joke to you is death to me’ -  $154.36 million (2024-25) and estimated $178.51 milliion (2025-26), even that odd $90.56 millin projection for 2026-27 - a 3.5 per cent ‘joke’, which horsemen need to start lobbying for purses to be its final destination.
Imagine an average of $150 mllion per year being diverted from the BGLC back into racing for the purposes of purse money, animal welfare, horsemen benevolence, a group pension fund, and health insurance.
The JRC, though on a bye, shouldn’t get too cosy with the average $658 milliion that it rakes in from the promoting company and bookmakers. Something has to give for local racing to be dragged into the modernity of how horse racing is funded internationally.