Employees and representatives of Camarero Race Track Corp. “manually validated or cashed” winning bet tickets that had not been claimed, allegedly with the “intention of taking the money,” according to a “confidential and privileged” report the Centro de Periodismo Investigativo (CPI) had access to. The Investigation & Regulation Office (OIR) of the Puerto Rico Gaming Commission prepared the report.
The 2017 Betting Regulations states on page 50 that “the right to collect the prizes will expire after three months from the day on which the prizes are awarded.” OIR personnel identified a pattern of tickets being cashed just before the expiration of this 90-day period, which applies to all horse racing bets made in Puerto Rico.
The “apparent fraudulent scheme” at Camarero Race Track, the official name of the company operating the racetrack in Canóvanas, led to 4,718 tickets being “manually and suspiciously” validated between 2021 and 2023 at betting windows at Puerto Rico’s only racetrack. CPI sources confirmed that several federal agencies, including the FBI, have received the report.
“This Office [of Investigation & Regulation of the Gaming Commission] urges the Horse Racing Bureau — the agency responsible for regulating the horse racing industry — to begin administrative proceedings against Camarero with the intent of recovering $2,434,275.85, corresponding to the 4,718 tickets that were manually and suspiciously cashed or validated,” reads the document, dated June 27, 2024, and submitted to Mónica Andreu Martínez, director of the Bureau.
The OIR’s recommendation followed an analysis of transaction reports from the Global Tote system, which manages the electronic betting infrastructure in Puerto Rico.
“A series of manually validated transactions were identified within a limited time frame; for example, around eight tickets were validated in one minute,” the document details.
The report further notes that investigative staff from the Gaming Commission visited Camarero and confirmed that cashing or validating a winning ticket typically takes several minutes, not seconds, as suggested by the transaction history reviewed. Each betting ticket includes the date and time of the wager.
Camarero’s vice president of projects, María Cristina Mari García, said, “Camarero has no knowledge” of the report “or the information mentioned here.” “We conduct regular audits and have a robust surveillance system in all areas,” she added.
“A notable incident occurred in December 2022 when a customer visited Camarero to cash winning tickets but was told that the tickets had already been validated”, the report recounts. “An inspector intervened to investigate and found that, based on video recordings of the times when the transactions were processed, the customer had not been present at the betting window”.
If someone wins a bet but loses the ticket, they have 10 days to file a claim with horse racing authorities for case evaluation. However, the Unclaimed Winnings Regulations, which haven’t been updated since 2013, do not include a process to verify that the person cashing the ticket is the original bettor. The 2017 Betting Regulations assume that the ticket holder is the rightful owner.
In June, the CPI requested reports from the Gaming Commission on daily horse racing bets in Puerto Rico, including details of inflows and outflows of money for each race held since 2020. To date, neither the Commission nor the Horse Racing Bureau has provided this information.
Regulatory Oversight ‘Races Without a Jockey’
Between August 2021 and July 2024, the Gaming Commission awarded four contracts exceeding $100,000 each to Gaming Laboratories International (GLI) to inspect and audit betting systems and devices in Puerto Rico. Although GLI is widely recognized in the gaming industry, its services in Puerto Rico do not include horse racing bets, meaning there are no inspections or audits of those systems, unlike the regular audits conducted for the island’s casinos.
The acting Executive Director of the Gaming Commission, Juan Carlos Santaella Marchán, told the CPI that the investigation is still ongoing. He confirmed that he has not met with the assistant director of the OIR, Alexis Berríos Marrero, to discuss the report’s findings and recommendations but said he has met with other officials.
Santaella Marchán said a forensic audit would be necessary to confirm the OIR’s findings, which might require hiring specialized personnel.
The Gaming Commission has had the firm Robles y Asociados under contract for financial advisory services, including forensic audits of possible asset misappropriations since 2021. Robles y Asociados’ contracts total $223,250 between 2021 and 2024.
Berríos Marrero, author of the confidential report, handed over his service weapon in August and can no longer access the agency email. He is currently on medical leave and may leave his position, he confirmed in an interview with the CPI when asked to verify the authenticity of the document received through a source.
Berríos Marrero said his repeated warnings about irregularities had made the acting executive director uncomfortable, leading to a request for his resignation, though it has not yet been formalized.
In an official document dated Aug. 24, 2024, which the CPI obtained, Berríos Marrero told Santaella Marchán that a person who must comply with the rules of the Commission had threatened him. The person allegedly told Berríos Marrero that he was pleased about his possible departure from the agency and that they would meet “on the street.”
Silence Reigns for Over a Decade
Documents obtained by the CPI confirm that unclaimed winnings and irregularities at Camarero Race Track are not new.
In 2009, the then-head of Betting Inspection at the now-defunct Horse Racing Industry and Sports Administration (AIDH), Alfredo Busquets Alma, reported to authorities that a bettor had been unable to cash a winning ticket at the same agency in Vieques where he had placed the bet because the agency had run out of funds.
Busquets Alma contacted the Camarero Race Track and was informed that the ticket had been cashed in Bayamón. However, this was later corrected, and according to the evidence provided, the ticket had actually been cashed at betting window #355 at the Camarero Race Track, as Busquets Alma told the then-horse racing administrator, Graham Castillo, who is now deceased.
“The key question is: why did a ticket that was allegedly never presented for payment show up as cashed at a racetrack window just days before it was set to expire and be turned over to the government?” Busquets Alma questioned at the time. This is the same issue that has resurfaced in the OIR investigation into the $2.4 million theft between 2021 and 2023.
In 2011, Busquets Alma again raised concerns with the AIDH, this time regarding unclaimed tickets from bets placed on video gaming machines managed by Camarero. Busquets Alma told the then-horse racing deputy administrator, Jorge Panzardi Acevedo, and legal advisor José Martínez, that “Camarero owes the Horse Racing Industry Administration $302,304.85 for unclaimed winnings from the video gaming system during the 2010 fiscal year.”
Busquets Alma added in his communication that Camarero had not provided actual evidence that the tickets had been paid and stressed the importance of receiving “reliable, truthful, and trustworthy information so that the Office of Betting Inspectors can conduct proper oversight as required by law.”
In 2012, Busquets Alma again brought up these concerns, informing the AIDH’s legal director, Joel Rodríguez Rodríguez, that the amount owed for unclaimed winnings from video gaming machines for the years 2010, 2011, and 2012 had reached $414,235.20.
After Busquets Alma’s ongoing reports, he was removed from his position in February 2013. He was accused of using a computer to view pornography in a racetrack office.
“At that time, the correspondence my office [the Betting Inspector’s Office] received, aside from emails, came in hard copy resolutions that arrived at the Horse Racing Jury’s mailbox [the body responsible for overseeing operations during races]. I would go to the Jury’s office [located at the racetrack], pick up my mail, have lunch there, and then go back to my office. They said I was the one using that computer to look at pornography,” Busquets Alma, who served as a betting inspector for 23 years, told the CPI.
“The password for the computer was universal. The secretary had it, the members of the Horse Racing Jury had it, and so did the people who repaired the computer… the computer was serviced by people from the racetrack itself. They were the ones providing that service. But they pointed the finger at me. My contract was canceled. The conclusion was, and it’s in writing, that even though there wasn’t enough evidence, I was fined $5,000,” said the former employee.
