Mission Statement
To establish uniform requirements for and issue licenses to participants in pari-mutuel racing to ensure that all participants who are licensed meet a uniform standard of honesty and integrity, and to reduce the regulatory burden on those participants in pari-mutuel racing who are indisputably welcome to race in every state and province by providing them with a single license recognized in all racing states and provinces.
For more than 30 years, the pari-mutuel horse racing industry in North America has been seeking a vehicle to provide a national racing license for participants who race in multiple states. Two issues have been the primary hurdles to the development of that license:
The vast majority of license applicants have no criminal history. For those participants, a plan was needed to simplify the licensing process, which often is time consuming, expensive, complicated and duplicative, thereby reducing the regulatory burden on a majority of the participants who race in multiple states. The National Racing Compact was created as an independent, interstate governmental entity, composed of pari-mutuel racing regulators from participating states, which has been authorized by the states and approved by the Federal Bureau of Investigation to receive criminal history information from the FBI. The Compact is empowered to set standards for individual licenses, accept applications and fingerprints, analyze criminal history information and issue a national license which will be recognized by all member states and other states that may elect to recognize the license. Participants need only to complete one license application and provide one set of fingerprints instead of duplicating the licensing process in each state. Once approved for the national license, a participant then pays only a participation fee in each state in which the national licensee wishes to race.