Horse Racing and Casinos - can they really live together?

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View From The Eighth Pole: An Obligation To Horse Racing - Paulick Report

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He told you so.

Thirty-one years ago, Thoroughbred owner and breeder, John Ed Anthony, predicted what would happen if racetracks joined up with casinos.

“In the same location, under the same ownership and management, either casino gambling or live racing will die,” Anthony said, “and we know which it will be.

“Casinos are our competition – poison to racing,” he added, calling them “the greatest threat to our industry in modern history.”

 

Anthony made those remarks at the 1994 Jockey Club Round Table on Matters Pertaining to Racing in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. This was before casino gambling or slot machines became prevalent at many racetracks throughout North America.

In the wake of efforts by Belinda Stronach and her 1/ST Racing company to pass a law in Florida allowing Gulfstream Park to end live racing while keeping their slot machine license, Anthony is frustrated that his prediction is beginning to come true. He worries that Florida will be just the first domino to fall if decoupling legislation passes in the Sunshine State.

 

Companion Decoupling Bill Passes Florida Senate Committee 5-2

“Casinos have been wonderful for racing – the revenue sharing has been the lifeblood of purses – but it doesn't take a very smart fella to understand that racing is a whole lot more trouble than a casino and not nearly as lucrative,” he said. “And now we're being discarded. I can't think of how to combat it, other than to argue the point that they used racing to get their licenses, and now they're discarding racing.

“The facts are that the tracks used pari-mutuel wagering and the logic of having gambling in the states as a catalyst to get their casinos,” he said. “And now, as projected, you're beginning to see the separation – now that they have the casino licenses, they don't need racing anymore.”

Anthony worried in 1994 that many racetracks would add casinos with good intentions and then be bought out by casino companies. “How long will live racing exist when Vegas corporations own the tracks?” he said. Even if the tracks weren’t sold to gaming companies, Anthony said during his Round Table speech, racing would suffer. “Most available capital will be invested in the construction and development of casinos,” he predicted. “This will inevitably result in the decline of racing facilities.”

While that may be true at many “racinos” in operation today, he said that is not the case at the Cella family’s Oaklawn Park in Anthony’s home state of Arkansas. “The Cellas are certainly the exception to the rule,” he said.

 

“The writing is on the wall,” he said. “If Gulfstream can do what they want to do, the die is cast. I think there will be a surge of similar moves.”

In his Round Table speech, Anthony said the move toward casinos would cause horse racing “significant grief,” forcing it to downsize and adjust. One comment from his talk that stood out was what Thoroughbred owners might have to do if racetracks close.

“In some areas,” he said, “we may have to race in an open field and view the events from tailgates and the back-end of pickup trucks. But we will control our industry. And we will be free to go forward in ways we believe are in our best interest.”

 

That comment is particularly relevant in connection with the potential closure of Gulfstream Park. Maybe future racing in Florida won’t take place in open fields with people watching from pickup trucks, but I can envision a more modest facility operated by a group led by horsepeople who are committed to the continuation of Thoroughbred racing.

If it comes to pass that Belinda Stronach’s company succeeds in closing Gulfstream Park and keeping a casino that would have never existed without horse racing, she owes it to the sport and all who depend on it for their livelihoods to help fund and build a replacement track. And that should be the case in any other state that goes down a similar path. If horse racing played a part in getting someone a casino license, they have an obligation to horse racing.

That’s my view from the eighth pole.

 

 

Veteran horse racing journalist Ray Paulick launched the Paulick Report in 2008 after spending more than a quarter century covering the sport for daily and weekly publications, including Daily Racing Form, Thoroughbred Times, and Blood-Horse.