A Story of Two Forms of Gaming

Slots and casinos were poised to become the savior years ago for horse racing. Fans of the sport were willing to climb into bed with the enemy to save the sport of kings at any price. It looks like the bill is coming due. - Horse racing was once a part of the big three: Baseball, Boxing, and Horse Racing. The "salad years" are long in the rear view mirror and the new era is in full swing. Racing in many forms has fallen by the wayside so slot machines can flourish. Gulfstream Park just sought to "decouple" Thoroughbred racing from its operation of slot machines, according to BloodHorse.

According to the order: "Approximately five years ago, the Legislature decoupled parimutuels, which is an industry term that means parimutuels no longer had to offer live events (dog races, jai alai, harness racing, etc.) and could still offer slot machine gaming. All but one parimutuel, that is. Plaintiff (Gulfstream Park) still has to offer live thoroughbred racing in order to keep its slot machine license. Plaintiff now challenges that law as an unconstitutional special law and seeks to enjoin Defendant from enforcing it."

I have chatted with some close friends who are high up in the racing game. They would not be surprised if, state by state, a majority of horse racing would be phased out. They are in positions of decision for racing, and that alone tells you something. - When a good friend asked me to make a trip to Florida, I asked why? I used to enjoy Dog Racing and nothing better than catching an evening of Jai Alai. Both were exciting and horse racing was there if we wanted to make the drive. The "Sunshine State" was a happy place for exciting parimutuel wagering of many sorts. But, no more. - Slots were the Trojan Horse that looked promising and appeared to be another tool that would allow racing to grow and a new form of gaming would introduce wagering to a brand new audience. But, just like the original Trojan plan, there are some other plans afoot.

Slots were exciting and could have bolstered up racing to plan ahead for the next decade. On paper it looked promising, but after further review racing was too costly a product to prop up. - Funny thing. If it weren't for the parimutuel wagering in place, slots and casinos would have been a tough sell to implement on their own. - Maybe the next state that entertains the idea should write in a provision for both racing and slots to coexist. Neither side could vote the other out of existence without giving up its own license in the process. It would at least keep an open dialogue on the table to work together, and would not allow one to erase decades of history because they want more.

Update: round one goes to racing. - A Florida judge dismissed Gulfstream's lawsuit on August 11, siding with the state and upholding the law that keeps Thoroughbred racing tied to the slot machine license. Gulfstream still has the right to appeal, so this one is far from over. - But for now, the arrangement holds, and racing keeps its seat at the table a little longer. Maybe that provision I mentioned above isn't such a bad idea after all.