It was an amalgam of bills enacted as Chapter 506 and 507 which were sponsored by conservative Assemblyman Merwin K. Hart and Republican Senator George B.
[1] For more than a decade, moral activists, including the YMCA,[2] had demanded New York enact legislation similar to that passed in 1898 by the state of New Jersey which banned both gambling and horse racing.
Despite opposition from prominent owners such as August Belmont Jr. and Harry Payne Whitney, reform legislators were not happy that betting was still going on at racetracks and they had further restrictive legislation passed by the New York Legislature in 1910[8] that made it possible for racetrack owners and members of its board of directors to be fined and imprisoned if anyone was found betting, even privately, anywhere on their premises.
Numerous Saratoga businesses went bankrupt, hotels suffered a sharp decline in guests, and real estate values collapsed.
[11] Due to the turmoil surrounding the industry following the closure of the New Jersey racetracks in 1898, a number of top American jockeys such as Guy Garner, Tod Sloan, Danny Maher, Skeets Martin, Winfield O'Connor, Frank O'Neill, John Reiff, Lester Reiff, and Nash Turner had already gone to Europe to continue horse racing.