Wagering ground to a halt between 4-5 p.m. Eastern at a handful of U.S. tracks offering live racing on Monday when United Tote – owned by Churchill Downs Inc. and a subsidiary of the New York Racing Association – had a failure of both its main data center and backup.
The tote failure also affected simulcasting and advance-deposit wagering companies.
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A spokesperson for CDI, which owns 51 percent of United Tote after selling 49 percent to NYRA in 2024, issued the following statement on the outage: “During scheduled power maintenance at United Tote’s primary data center yesterday, an unexpected power event occurred to the backup system, temporarily impacting service. The team acted immediately to restore operations.”
The outage appeared to hit just before 4 p.m., based on lengthy delays at multiple tracks. Horseshoe Indianapolis ran race four at 3:48 p.m. and race five at 4:59 p.m. The first race at Presque Isle Downs was off at 3:32 p.m., with the second going at 4:55 p.m. Thistledown ran the sixth race at 3:24 p.m. and management decided to cancel the seventh and eighth races after a lengthy delay.
But that didn’t appear to be the only failure to U.S. betting systems on Monday.
NYRA Bets posted on social media at 12:30 p.m. ET – hours before the United Tote outage affected live racing – that “full functionality” of its app and website were restored. Additionally, horseplayers commented on social media late Monday morning that other ADW sites were down.
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An email inquiry concerning the outage sent to the Thoroughbred Racing Protective Bureau’s Office of Wagering Integrity was not answered. An executive with the National Thoroughbred Racing Association, contacted later Monday afternoon, was unaware of the tote problem.
This story was originally reported by Paulick Report on Sep 30, 2025, where it first appeared in the News section. Add Paulick Report as a Preferred Source by clicking here.