COEUR d'ALENE - Idaho gamblers will have another option for betting on horses later this year when instant video gaming machines will be used to wager on "historical horse races."

The Idaho Legislature passed a law in 2013 to clarify that "historical horse racing" is legal as long as it is done at licensed horse-racing tracks in Idaho.

The law went into effect in July of last year, but the horse racing industry is still trying to get a system in place to do it. The State Affairs Committee in the Idaho House of Representatives held a hearing on Monday to discuss new rules governing the practice.

"The law passed last year, and the Legislature was just reviewing the rules (on Monday)," said newly appointed Idaho Racing Commissioner Jim Hammond, who is also a former state senator from Post Falls.

He said the new racing method was pushed in the Legislature last year as a way to help the horse racing industry stay viable among competition from other entertainment sectors.

"From our perspective, if we can raise more money to help keep the horsemen viable, then we are happy to do it," Hammond said.

Historical horse racing is using an instant video gaming machine to display a horse race that has been run in the past. The machine uses a data bank of up to 60,000 past horse races, according to information presented to the Legislature last year.

The races are brought up on the screen at random without revealing the name of the racetrack, the name of the horses, or the date it was run until the end of the race.

The machine gives the odds of the horses and how many races the horses won in the past so the gambler can make an educated guess.

The technology has already been legalized in five states, including Idaho, Kentucky, Alabama, Oregon and Wyoming. However, the technology has been legally challenged in Kentucky, and according to an organization called Stop Predatory Gambling, other states are starting to question the legality of the machines.

Jonathan Krutz, secretary of the board for SPG, spoke in opposition to the Idaho legislation last year saying the historic horse racing machines are nothing more than slot machines.

Krutz said Treasure Valley Racing, a group of investors which owns Les Bois Park and Turf Club in Boise, pushed the legislation through saying it was no different than pari-mutuel betting, which has been legal in Idaho since 1961.

Pari-mutuel betting is a form of betting in which all bets on a single race are placed in a pool and odds are generated by the number of bets placed on individual horses and those odds determine the payoffs.

"The way they moved it through the Legislature is by talking very little about the machines," Krutz said.

"The reality is you don't even have to watch the race to bet," he said. "These are basically spinning reels on a slot machine."

Krutz said gamblers place a wager and pick their first, second and third choices to win on an individual basis. He said there is no large pool of betters to make this form of betting pari-mutuel. That is what is being challenged in Kentucky, he added.

Doug Okuniewicz, general manager of the Greyhound Park and Event Center in Post Falls, said that he has ordered 10 machines that he hopes will be ready for play later this year.

"This is all new to us too," he said. "We are still going to school on this."

Okuniewicz was told that his machines will be delivered after the Les Bois Park and Turf Club gets an estimated 200 machines in place.

"The manufacturer said it doesn't make sense to set our machines up until they have their machines set up down there," he said, adding that all of the races are synchronized, so everyone is betting on the same race.

Setting up 10 machines at the Greyhound Park, which is owned by the Greene Group of Alabama, wouldn't amount to much without the rest of the machines in place, he said.

He disagrees with Krutz's assessment that the machines are nothing more than slot machines.

While he doesn't know how they are synchronized, he is certain that everyone will be betting on the same races, which develops the pool, and odds will be generated by the number of bets placed per race.

"They are not slot machines," Okuniewicz said. "They are pari-mutuel betting machines."