Wichita and Tampa Greyhound Parks to End Live Racing

Two greyhound tracks will be closing shortly here in the United States, one because it will not be allowed to install slot machines and the other because it wants to in order to concentrate on its poker rooms. Wichita Greyhound Park in Kansas had hung its hopes of staying open and prospering on a county-wide referendum on slots, but the vote went narrowly against them and they have announced their intention to close. Tampa Greyhound Park in Florida has ended live racing of its own volition, purportedly out of the blue to concentrate on their poker rooms.

Wichita owner Phil Ruffin has said he has been losing big bucks ever since he purchased the facility back in 1997 for a reported ten million dollars, to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars a month lately. All of the hopes for keeping Wichita open hinged on the outcome of an August 7th vote to allow slots in the facility. The state of Kansas had already approved slots, which will be going into The Woodlands in Kansas City, Kansas, but the addition of the machines was contingent on county approval. Sedgwick County voters apparently felt that Wichita Greyhound Park should not get slot machines, but only by a margin of 343 votes out of more than one hundred thousand. Ruffin now will end live racing in early October and close the doors for good in November, with the track's two-hundred and fifty employees losing their jobs. Ironically, the "no" vote winning means that nearby Sumner County will now be allowed to pursue a casino of its own, while Wichita Greyhound Park goes down the tubes.