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Thursday, July 13, 2006Contact: Maurits Bruggink, Executive Director, IFHA
+33.1.49 53 32 27
Racing Trust Mark awarded to online betting companies

Some of the most prominent online betting companies have today decided to apply the Racing Trust Mark to support authorized betting and rule-based trade in the horseracing product.

IFHA President Louis Romanet explains: “We welcome those operators like Youbet that stand up against the growing number of illegal betting operators who prey on the racing industry. The Racing Trust Mark shows that these operators are respected by the racing authorities around the world as business partners that respect the rules of fair trade and the laws in the countries they operate.”

Chuck Champion, CEO of U.S. based Youbet.com® (NASDAQ:UBET) and its subsidiaries International Racing Group and United Tote,” We are proud and pleased to be among the first to apply the Racing Trust Mark. Our operations are set up in a way to comply with the applicable laws, multi-jurisdictional-hub regulations and the reviews of our Independent Wagering Compliance Committee This “good global wagering citizen” label helps distinguishes businesses like our own from all those, mainly off-shore bookmaking operations that cause unfair competition by operating outside the law and without agreement of the tracks or economic return to the horsemen. We applaud IFHA for their global leadership in this vitally important area of wagering integrity”

The Racing Trust Mark is a component of the IFHA Action Plan to promote authorised wagering. The Action Plan, adopted in June 2004, aims to end unauthorised online betting through a variety of different initiatives. “We will never be able to eradicate illegal betting completely,” says Maurits Bruggink, IFHA’s Executive Director, “but we will certainly slow down its development and push it back with the help of the authorities. The regulations in many countries are still not up to the challenges that bring new technologies, but partly due to our Action Plan, governments are catching up and bring rules in the online gambling sector.”

The Racing Trust Mark is a label awarded by the International Federation of Horseracing Authorities (IFHA) to betting operators that offer authorized betting on horseracing. Betting can be considered authorized when the jurisdiction of the bettor allows the bets and the operator has the agreement of the racing organizer to use the racing product. More information can be found on: www.RacingTrustMark.com

E-Mail : mbruggink@IFHAonline.org