IRB: No Evidence of Mutuels Fraud at Arlington

The Illinois Racing Board said Thursday it has found no evidence of wrongdoing at Arlington Park and its off-track betting operation following an investigation of allegations employees were fraudulently cashing outstanding winning tickets and keeping the money, which totaled $1 million.

The IRB said the investigation "uncovered no pattern of abuse or irregularities regarding outstanding winning tickets" and called the charges "unfounded and not supported by the facts."

"From the start, we were confident that there was no credence to the allegations made," Arlington chief executive officer Scott Mordell said. "It is unfortunate that so much time and effort was expended during this investigation."

The IRB investigation followed word from by the Internal Revenue Service that it had insufficient evidence to initiate an investigation on the allegations. The IRS turned the allegations over to the IRB.

"IRB staff and the Illinois State Police have investigated all aspects of the alleged fraud at Arlington and Trackside (OTB), and have found no evidence of wrongdoing," the IRB report concluded. "A review of the facts during the course of the audit indicate that the theft of $1 million, or any other substantial amount in outstanding tickets, is virtually impossible. Our audit uncovered no evidence of fraudulently cashed tickets. Moreover, our audit indicated no pattern of abuse or irregularities regarding manually cashed tickets."

As a result of the allegations, the IRB said it would conduct more regular audits of manually cashed tickets.