Success of Horse Racing Depends on Slots

The future of horse racing depends on Las Vegas-type slot machines. While the fan base for thoroughbreds is dwindling, tracks where casino-style gambling is allowed are doing well.

The Sport of Kings after World War II lost out when fans embraced other sports such as pro baseball, football and basketball. Then lotteries blossomed around the country, siphoning dollars from tracks.

Enter casino gambling, thanks to flourishing Las Vegas, which has surpassed most vacation spots around the country.

What hurt racing until simulcasting emerged was that if you couldn't visit the track of your choice, you couldn't wager unless you went the bookie route. Now there's online wagering and betting by phone. Simulcasting rescued tracks fighting to survive.

Slot machines are picking up where simulcasting left off. A case in point, Louisiana tracks that have them are doing much better than Texas tracks that don't. That's because purses for racing climbs as revenue from video slots rolls in.

Texas lawmakers this year refused to act on a bill to allow a statewide vote that would allow slots at horse and dog tracks around the state. Proponents vow to continue the fight because they say the future of Texas racing is at stake.

But the road to slots in some states is not without potholes. For example, Gulfstream Park in South Florida looked like it would benefit when voters in Broward County approved a referendum.

But the Florida Legislature adjourned in May after the House and Senate passed dramatically different bills. Those differences weren't reconciled and, to make matters worse, there are no plans for a special session this year.

This prompted Gulfstream, two dog tracks and a jai-alai fronton to sue the state in Broward to clarify if they are authorized to operate slot machines. Meanwhile, gambling opponents several days earlier in Tallahassee asked a trial judge to rule that the pari-mutuels cannot start offering slot machines without an enabling law from the Legislature.