Rigging the Races.(Thailand)(Brief Article)

At first glance, Satish Sehgal might seem to be a horse-racing psychic. He has an uncanny ability to pick the winners at any of Thailand's racetracks. Seated with a program booklet at the posh Royal Bangkok Sports Club one recent Sunday, Sehgal took seconds to dissect the field just before post time of the third race. "Here--these 10 horses are going to finish way back in the pack," he says, marking them off with a pencil, "and among the remaining five, one of these three will win." Minutes later the horses cross the finish line--exactly as he predicted.

Sadly, Sehgal is no psychic. Rather, he is in the loop about one simple fact: Thai horse racing is rigged. The industry, which is one of the biggest in Asia, stands alone in terms of corruption. Many powerful horse owners regularly collude to pick the winners and losers, making millions of dollars in gambling profits at the expense of average fans. "It's criminal," says Sehgal, an Indian-Thai who is a prominent member of the Royal Bangkok's general committee. "They all know each other, so they can call each other and see which horses are trying."

Corruption has long been part of Thailand's century-old racing industry, but racing officials now say they have a more serious problem than a few owners lining their pockets. Betting revenues as well as attendance at Thailand's seven racetracks have plummeted nearly 50 percent in five years, as disillusioned punters stay home or place their bets on other sports like English football. "There's always been collusion, but it's completely out of control," complains horse owner Akalit Guna-Tilaka, whose grandfather cofounded the Royal Bangkok in the early 1900s. "This type of thing never happens [at racetracks] anywhere else in the world." The shady backroom deals are striking at the heart of a multimillion-dollar industry that, including racetracks, stud farms and smaller breeding centers, employs 300,000 people. Quite simply, the entire system is in danger of financial collapse.

The racetrack racket is fairly straightforward. As bets trickle in before each race, the odds on each horse rise and fall depending on how much is bet. The odds and amounts bet are displayed on a giant screen, called a tote board, which changes by the second. Moments before a race begins, the odds on most of the 15 horses will shoot through the roof, while the odds on three or four others will plummet. That is the telltale sign that owners, snug in their private VIP boxes, have placed huge wagers on certain horses, knowing in advance that the other jockeys have been instructed to lose, according to race officials who explained the scam to NEWSWEEK. Some knowledgeable punters follow the owners' lead, but the average fan in the stands is taken to the cleaners on a horse destined to lose.

In one race viewed by a NEWSWEEK correspondent, a jockey coming out of the gate immediately zigzagged his horse across the track, rather than run straight, and fell into last place before the first turn. In the next race, two horses were running neck and neck in the home stretch, far ahead of the pack. While one jockey was whipping his horse to go faster, the other was off his saddle, pulling on the reins to ...