Delaware General Assembly


CHAPTER 276

AN ACT TO AMEND CHAPTER 5 OF TITLE 28 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO HARNESS RACING.

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Delaware:

Section 1. Subsections (a), (c) and (d) of Section 522 of Title 28 of the Delaware Code are amended to read as follows:

(a) The application for a license to conduct a harness horse race meet shall be filed with the Commission on or before the 31st day of December of the year preceding that for which the license is requested, but the Commission may, for a good cause, permit an application to be filed at a later date. The application shall specify the days on which harness horse racing is desired to be conducted, and shall be in such form and supply such data and information, including a blueprint of the track and specifications of its surface and blueprints and specifications of buildings and grandstand on the land where the meet is to be conducted, as the Commission prescribes; provided, however, that it shall not be necessary for the applicant to submit blueprints and specifications with the application if the race meet for which a license is requested is to be conducted at a track for which the Commission granted a license for the preceding year.

The 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 seems necessary. The erection and construction of the track, grandstand and buildings of any applicant for a license to conduct harness horse racing under this chapter, shall be subject to the inspection of the Commission, which may order such engineering examination as the Commission deems necessary at the expense of the applicant, and may employ such inspectors as the Commission considers necessary for that purpose.

(c) The Commission shall, on or before the 15th of January of each year, award all dates for harness horse racing in this State for the current year, but the dates so awarded, subject to the provisions hereinafter stated, shall not exceed 40 days in the aggregate for any county. The dates available for award to New Castle County shall be used by the New Castle County licensee for racing in that county only. The dates available for award to Kent County and Sussex County may be used in whole or in part for racing in those counties or, with the prior approval of the Commission, the Kent County licensee or the Sussex County licensee may assign all or any of their respective dates to the New Castle County licensee for use in New Castle County. If the harness racing dates as applied for do not conflict with each other, the Commission shall award the dates applied for; but if the harness racing dates as applied for conflict with each other, then the racing dates awarded in any year for Kent County shall begin September 15th, or if that day falls on a Sunday, September 16th, and shall not conflict or overlap with the racing dates awarded to any other licensee.

(d) No more than two harness horse racing meets shall be held in any one county in any one year.

Section 2. Section 529 of Title 28 of the Delaware Code is amended to read as follows:

§ 529. Licensee's annual financial statement

Every licensee shall file with the Commission not later than four months after the close of its fiscal year a statement, duly certified by an independent public accountant, of its receipts from all sources whatsoever during the fiscal year and of all expenses and disbursements, itemized in the manner and form directed by the Commission, showing the net revenue from all sources derived by the licensee during the fiscal year covered by such statement.

Approved May 24, 1960.