Horse racing has been around us for thousands of years, but it hasn’t been smooth sailing that’s for sure. Ever since modern-day horse racing became mainstream, the problems started to appear.
We are talking about betting laws and consumer protection to animal welfare and sporting integrity. Horse racing is a sport where big money is involved, and when we are talking about big money, obviously there will be some unethical people that will try to cut corners, right?
Horse racing sits in a weird legal triangle for so long. It’s part sport, part entertainment, and very much a regulated gambling product. But the main pillar of horse racing is money. That’s the only purpose of every mainstream sport on earth.
Over the last couple of years, we’ve seen some big shifts in terms of horse racing regulations all over the world, and animal welfare organizations tightening the strings on what’s allowed and what’s not in the sport.
So, if you are a horse racing fan, a small owner, or just someone who’s interested in the sport and you want to understand why the rules keep changing, this article is for you.
Table of Contents
Betting Rulebook
In most countries, the government licenses betting operators and sets the rules for marketing, identity checks, and the use of safe-gambling practices. Horse racing regulations are different in every part of the world, but let’s examine the recent trends.
United Kingdom & Ireland
The UK is known for being a horse racing nation, and the gambling Commission’s License Conditions and Codes of Practice (the LCCP) is in charge of everything from customer verification to anti-money-laundering.
We’ve seen a couple of changes here in the past couple of years, where the regulator began rolling out “financial vulnerability” and “financial risk” checks that kick in at defined deposit thresholds.
These are rules that will indicate when people will start to show early signs of harm. The UK also introduced maximum online slot stakes in 2025
Ireland, on the other hand, passed the Gambling Regulation Act 2024, creating a new national regulator with powers over licensing, advertising, and enforcement.
In other words, we can see tighter regulations surrounding not just horse racing betting, but other forms of gambling.
United States
In the US, the sports betting scene is handled state-by-state, but horse racing has long had its own federal framework. The Interstate Horseracing Act (IHA), released in 1978, allows interstate pari-mutuel wagering, including based placed remotely, so long as each state involved permits it and required consents are in place.
We can say that horse racing betting in the United States is pretty safe waters. In 2006, the UIGEA (the online gambling payments law) explicitly carved out horse racing where state law authorizes it, which is one reason ADW platforms remain widely available in racing states.
Right now, it is quite easy to place a bet on horse racing in the US, especially for big events like the upcoming Breeders’ Cup.
You can learn more about the details for the Breeders’ Cup and odds here: twinspires.com/breeders-cup/
The latest trend in horse racing betting in the US is the newly introduced fixed-odds betting (a price you lock in, rather than a pari-mutuel pool), and it has been quite popular over the last couple of months.
Places like New Jersey have already legalized fixed odds on horse racing, but pari-mutuel remains dominant nationwide.
Welfare Rulebook
Let’s focus on a more serious issue for horse racing in general. The Welfare rules continue to be broken. People are using illegal substances (owners and trainers) to maximize the horse’s performance, which also negatively impacts their overall health. This is not ethical, but the good thing is that some rules and organizations oversee this process.
United States: HISA, safety, and medication
Since 2022, the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority (HISA) has rolled out national rules for racetrack safety and, from May 22, 2023, Anti-Doping and Medication Control (ADMC), a first for a sport that used to be state-by-state. Under ADMC, race-day medication is tightly restricted, and Lasix (furosemide) is not permitted in 2-year-old and stakes races, with broader rules for training and other classes.
The early data have been encouraging: HISA reported a record-low racing-related fatality rate at HISA tracks in 2024. That said, risk isn’t zero; Saratoga’s 2025 summer meet saw a spike in fatalities, a reminder that vigilance and track-specific safety work matter.
Outside HISA’s press releases, the Jockey Club’s Equine Injury Database, the sport’s best long-term dataset, shows substantial improvement since 2009, with 2023 marking a further decline in fatal injuries. This is the benchmark many analysts use to track real progress.
Britain & Ireland
In Britain, the whip is a padded, regulated aid with strict use limits: maximum six strikes on the Flat, seven over Jumps, with penalties (and potential disqualification) for misuse. Ireland operates similar controls and refined its penalty guidelines again in 2024 after feedback from jockeys and stewards. Both systems stress technique, giving the horse time to respond, and proportional penalties.
Beyond race day, Britain’s Horse Welfare Board set a strategy aiming for “a life well-lived” for every horse bred to race, traceability, better safety data, and open communication. That’s complemented by aftercare: in the UK, Retraining of Racehorses (RoR) reported 14,036 actively registered former racehorses in 2024, and in North America the Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance (TAA) accredits aftercare organizations against detailed standards covering facilities, veterinary care, and adoption policies.
Internationally, the IFHA publishes minimum welfare guidelines used by many regulators to align on what “good” looks like across countries and codes.
So, the modern legal picture of horse racing has two halves. On the betting side, we have regulators tightening checks and advertising and introducing fixed odds, and on the welfare side, we have new rules and stricter medication controls that will introduce some ethics in the sport.
