Can Slots Save Horse Racing? Why would we want to?

The phony pretext of "Saving Tracks with Slots" by cash-strapped states is dispelled here [no link to original article provided]:

Marylands Racing Industry Slot Machine

Revenue Portion in Danger of being Cut
Luiz Simmons
is proposing to divert

the racing industrys [sic] portion of slots

revenue to school building. Frank

Turner also proposed a similar bill

which he withdrawn later.

It is baffling that there is intense interest in preserving a dead industry that is heavily subsidized. Did we work this hard to protect 8 track tape manufacturing or wasp-waist corsets? [Maybe you can add to the list of products that we no longer use or need that we allowed to evaporate.]

Were it not for the well paid lobbyists stroking the egos of not very smart legislators, would we even consider this sensible?

Rosy promises of over-stated revenues, over-stated job creation abound. Same old. Same old. The Gambling Vultures employ the same rhetoric in each state....if you watch.

Those revenues have yet to appear because...well....who would build a SLOT BARN in this climate when the Industry is failing, filing bankruptcy around the country, Tribal Casinos are defaulting and even Foxwoods isn't making their payments?


Although it's doubtful that Casino Shills, such as Clyde Barrow have thought to count SLOT MACHINES as they do license plates, this might provide some insight: Slot Machines Vanishing

There is growing opposition that is being ignored: Stop Slots at Arundel Mills

Can Slots Save Horse Racing?

State Fairgrounds reps are hopeful slots revenue can boost attraction to the sport, though opponents call it unlikely

Slots supporters have long said slot machine revenues are the only savior for Maryland's struggling horse racing industry. Opponents have countered by saying the payout model is uncertain and should be meant to benefit industries that aren't "dying."

Maryland State Fair President Howard "Max" Mosner sits firmly in the pro-slots camp, and said doubters need only look at how the fairgrounds' racing has declined to see where the equestrian tradition in Baltimore County is headed.

Mosner spoke to Patch about racing after the State Fair finished one of its best years—thanks, in part, to the appearance of Justin Bieber.

Back in the day, horses—not singers—used to be the big draw.

There was once a time when the Maryland State Fairgrounds ran horses 42 times a year on its thoroughbred racetrack. It was part of the Fair Circuit, which held horse races nearly year-round.

More recently, the grounds have been used more so to stage concerts and jousting events. Although racing was featured for several days during the State Fair, it paled in comparison to how the sport was once a celebrated Maryland tradition.

Mosner said he believes slots revenue is the answer to rejuvenating the sport. The money would go toward increasing purse money, thereby attracting better quality horses. The extra dollars would also go toward improvements to the racing facility.

"The thing that the industry needs most is purse money. All of the states around us have slot machines that augment their purse structures and as a result, we can't compete. We just don't have the power in our purses to attract as many horses as we'd like to," Mosner said. "You have to really tip your hat to the Maryland horsemen, the guys that run in Maryland day in and day out. … Hopefully they'll be able to see some dividends paid because of slots."

Two slots parlors will be opening this year. The first parlor is slated to open Sept. 30 in Cecil County. The other casino will likely open by Jan. 1.

The purse account for the entire industry is 7 percent of the revenue up to $100 million a year, according to J. Michael Hopkins, executive director for the Maryland Racing Commission. About 80 percent of the total will go thoroughbred racetracks like the Maryland State Fairgrounds.

"The end game is to bring the racing industry back to where it used to be," Hopkins said.

Horses only run 150 days out of the year in all track venues, where in years past the racing days numbered above 300.

Anti-slots opponents have challenged the measure since the idea of parlors became a hot topic in the legislature in 2007.

Former Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., a Republican, tried to pass slots for years but was stymied by the Democratic legislature. After he lost reelection in 2006, Democratic Gov. Martin O'Malley passed a measure through the legislature a year later that let voters decide the issue in a referendum.

The plan to let the state license 15,000 slot machines in five locations passed in 2008, but, two years later, implementation is limping along. The projected $600 million in revenues to the state are a years off.

"My issue with it is that it's a ridiculous fiscal policy," said Aaron Meisner, former chairman of the anti-slots group Stop Slots Maryland. "This whole idea that there is going to be this windfall for horse racing is open to so many questions that you can hardly take a nickel of it to the bank."

Meisner, who has been an outspoken anti-slots activist for years, said the issue is greater than gambling begetting more gambling.

"What do you think is more important to the future of Maryland over the next 50 years? Saving the horse racing industry so that an empty room full of people can watch eight horses run around in a circle?" he questioned. "Or do you think it's more important that we have a dynamic bio-technology industry here in the state?"

A report by the Maryland Budget and Tax Policy Institute stated that the horse racing industry accounts for 9,000 jobs and has a financial impact of $600 million. But, the report found, that people who are attracted to slots at racetracks are not guaranteed to cross over into betting on horse races. Only two of the five locations have racetracks near them.

"The Maryland Budget and Tax Policy Institute judges that this additional revenue will not by any means assure the survival of horse racing in Maryland," its report stated. "However, without this type of infusion the industry's prospects are very poor."