Explain this to me again, please. Slots were legalized to SAVE THE TRACKS and now the racing will be eliminated and the slots will continue?
Haven't we heard this somewhere before? Rhode Island maybe?
Any pretext to get slot parlors in works for the Industry.
We'll pay $70 million if Iowa scraps greyhound racing, Harrah's says
Harrah's Entertainment, the world's biggest casino chain, is pressuring Iowa lawmakers to end live greyhound racing and is willing to pay the state millions to see it happen.
Rep. Mary Mascher, D-Iowa City, told The Des Moines Register she is backing a bill pushed by Harrah's that would free Iowa's two greyhound racetrack-casinos from a requirement to race dogs a specific number of days per year.
In exchange, the Council Bluffs and Dubuque casinos would pay the state a total of $10 million annually for seven years.
It's the first time the Iowa Legislature has entertained such a proposal since lawmakers agreed 16 years ago to save dog racetracks by letting them install slot machines.
The greyhound racing industry is alarmed by the proposed legislation, which would allow live racing to end as of July 1 at Bluffs Run Greyhound Park in Council Bluffs, a Harrah's property, and at Dubuque Greyhound Park, which is managed by the nonprofit Dubuque Greyhound Association.
If live dog racing were halted, Iowans would be thrown out of work and Harrah's would ship profits to its Las Vegas headquarters instead of investing in Iowa, kennel operators told the Register.
Dwindling interest
Harrah's Entertainment, which owns 50 casinos worldwide and purchased the Council Bluffs greyhound racetrack-casino in 2001, commissioned a study of the greyhound industry and gave copies to Gov. Chet Culver and key lawmakers Wednesday.
The report shows consumer interest in betting on dogs has drastically dwindled and that it's expensive for the casinos to subsidize greyhound racing.
The two dog tracks together spend about $12 million a year in profits from slots and other gaming to supplement the prize money, or purses, that dog owners and kennels win, the report states.
Weekdays, few people are in the stands to watch dog racing, but crowds tend to be larger on the weekends, said officials from both the greyhound and casino industries.
Dog racing is fading nationally, said Jim Carney, a lobbyist for Harrah's. Dog tracks have shut down in the past two years in several states, including Kansas, Wisconsin, Colorado, Arizona and New Hampshire.
Mascher told the Register: "It's an industry that does not have a lot of following. It doesn't make sense to subsidize something Iowans aren't interested in."
State legislators now face a decision: Should they accept cash from the two casinos to let them off the hook for their obligation to subsidize dog racing? Or keep racing going for the sake of the economic boost from the small but thriving dog-breeding industry?
Rep. Rick Olson, D-Des Moines, said legislators shouldn't hurt the livelihood of dog breeders and racing dog owners, especially without warning. Iowa has 62 kennels and 146 breeders and owners, state Agriculture Department records show, including some who also race outside Iowa.
About a third of Iowa counties are home to registered greyhound farms, but the number of dog breeders is declining, according to the "Iowa Greyhound Study," a new report by Christiansen Capital Advisors LLC that was financed by Harrah's.
The breeding and raising of dogs in the state, however, is a growth area. Iowa ranked second in the country with 2,390 registered Iowa-bred pups in 2008, the most recent statistic available. That's up from 1,229 in 2000.
"It's unfair to yank the rug out from beneath the dog breeders without their input and agreement," Olson said. "There needs to be some type of golden parachute for them at a minimum."
Bob Hardison, an Onawa resident who operates kennels at both the Dubuque and Council Bluffs tracks, said: "They want to put us out of business at a time when the economy is the way it is? I can't imagine it."
Hardison, who is also president of the Iowa Greyhound Association, said the dog industry pumps more than $10 million annually into Iowa's economy.
"And after this seven-year deal is up, where's that $10 million going to go? Back to Vegas?" he said.
Slots, race dates linked
To keep Iowa's dog racing industry from failing in the wake of the legalization of riverboat gambling, state lawmakers in 1994 devised a strategy: In order to have slot machines, Bluffs Run Greyhound Park had to race dogs 290 days a year; Dubuque Greyhound Park had to race them 130 days. Both tracks were required to use gaming profits to keep afloat the greyhound side of their business.
The Harrah's report found that about $140 million in revenue from slot machines and table games went to greyhound owners and kennels from 1995 to 2008.
And 42 percent of those owners and kennels were out of state, the report says. They claimed $58 million.
If purses for kennel and owners were based on what people wager, the purses would be tiny, the report says. Only 4 percent of purse money was funded from pari-mutuel betting.
Greyhound wagering, from live racing and races that are carried via satellite to other betting places outside Iowa, dropped to $35 million last year from $109 million in 1991, Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission records show.
Hardison, the greyhound association president, said casino competition has hurt Iowa's dog-racing fan base, "but I think live racing could make a comeback if the tracks did more to promote us."
No limit on money use
Mascher's bill calls for the Council Bluffs casino to pay the state $7 million a year for seven years; the Dubuque casino would pay the state $3 million. The state could use the money for any purpose, and casinos could get out of live dog racing.
A study released a year ago showed 101 greyhounds had been injured at Iowa tracks in 2008, including 10 dogs that were euthanized. Injuries included broken legs, muscle tears, severed tails and a few cases of catastrophic wounds, state racing and gaming commission records showed.
Mascher, who has traditionally opposed gambling in general, added: "And I know there's a lot of our people who are humanitarians who don't like the dogs to be subjected to that."
Mascher's bill would let the two racetrack-casinos simulcast dog races from other states - and keep their slot machines and table games.
Carney, the casino lobbyist, said: "We think it's truly a public policy issue for the public to know how much subsidization there has been and whether or not that supplemental purse should be used for a public purpose for all of the state of Iowa."
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