FARGO (AP)- A federal judge has denied granting a new trial for the founder and former president of North Dakota's first simulcast racing service.

Convicted gambling operator Susan Bala, 51, of Fargo, is scheduled to begin a 27-month prison sentence Friday.

The owner of Racing Services Inc. requested a new trial in August, claiming she found "newly discovered evidence" documents, she says, that show she never intended to illegally operate her Fargo-based simulcast sports-betting business.

In August, Bala provided U.S. District Judge Ralph Erickson with 150 documents she said support her request for a new trial.

Some of the documents involve BRIXCORP, a Costa-Rica-based company created to develop an Internet-based wagering system for RSI.

The records detail work that went into developing the company. Bala claims in her motion for a new trial that the records show federal prosecutors were wrong when they characterized BRIXCORP as a nonexistent entity used to conceal illegal gambling proceeds.

But Erickson ruled late last week that the vast majority of the documents are not new evidence. Most of them were circulated between prosecutors and Bala before her trial began in January, he said in a two-page ruling.

The only document new to the court is a BRIXCORP certificate of incorporation which is irrelevant to the jury's finding of guilt, Erickson ruled.

"The underlying gambling charges rely on the issue of whether the proceeds of that gambling activity went to charity," Erickson said.

Bala's attorney, Mark Beauchene, could not be reached for comment on Monday. A message left at his office was not returned.

On Feb. 4, a jury convicted Bala of 12 felonies for running an illegal gambling parlor in south Fargo.

Prosecutors said the parlor, Global Contact Inc., handled $99 million in bets between October 2002 and April 28, 2003, when federal agents raided the site.

Global Contact was not licensed by the North Dakota Racing Commission, nor was a charity involved as required by law.