Just Like Last Year, Decoupling Bill Clears Same Florida Subcommittee In First Legislative Hearing

[Wandering Eyes]

Groundhog Day isn't for another 2 1/2 weeks, but when a Florida House of Representatives subcommittee on Wednesday debated a newly retooled version of previously controversial decoupling legislation that is being pushed by Gulfstream Park and Tampa Bay Downs, there was a distinct flavor of deja vu in the Tallahassee state house.

Just like in 2025, a similar group of legislators on the House Industries & Professional Activities Subcommittee were considering essentially the same proposed bill that would allow either of Florida's two Thoroughbred tracks to cease live racing while retaining their gaming rights.

And just like last year, when a version of his decoupling measure ended up getting passed in the House but not the Senate, its same sponsor, Rep. Adam Anderson, claimed his goal of decoupling was to actually “support” the Thoroughbred industry. During Jan. 14 testimony in support of HB 881, Anderson highlighted how this year's updated version of his bill would require the tracks to give notice of racing suspension as of July 1, 2027, with racing required to continue for at least three years after that notice of intent got filed.

In almost exact carbon-copy fashion as 12 months ago, Thoroughbred industry participants and several legislators sympathetic to the concerns of stakeholders fired back with reams of impressive economic-impact statistics, impassioned stories about their love of horses and the importance of continuing multi-generational family legacies involved in the sport.

Additionally, horsemen once again articulated how they feel their trust is being abused by track operators who, decades ago, leveraged the support of the racing community to establish a gaming-at-tracks paradigm that Gulfstream and Tampa now want to abandon by having the option to walk away from hosting horse races while retaining the benefits of the respective slot-machine and card-room privileges that the partnership of horsemen made possible.

To be sure, there were also the same queries of confusion by some legislators who, year after year, find it difficult to grasp the complex inner workings of how horse racing meshes with the overall gaming landscape, which in Florida is intricately linked by intertwined requirements involving a state compact with an Indian Tribe, various pari-mutuel statutes, local referendums and commission-level oversight.

Thus, given the repetitive, cyclical nature of all of the above, it was not surprising that the end result of Wednesday's voting ended up with the same result as last year, as the House Industries & Professional Activities Subcommittee reported HB 881 as “favorable.”

Just like last year, a nearly identical companion bill has been filed in the Florida Senate, but it has yet to come up before a committee for a recommendation either way.

After the hearing, a press release from the Florida Thoroughbred Breeders' and Owners' Association (FTBOA), termed the vote an “expected outcome.”

Lonny Powell, the FTBOA's chief executive officer, added that, “The bill has a long path ahead and we will continue making the case for Florida's Thoroughbred industry at every opportunity.”

Powell wasn't kidding about the “long path” prediction. All of this happened on just day three of the House's 2026 session, which is scheduled to go at least until Mar. 13.

HB 881 must next clear the House Commerce Committee, where it is up for consideration with no hearing date yet posted.

Racing and breeding stakeholders have fought Florida's looming threat of decoupling almost since right after Gulfstream and Tampa first got gaming two decades ago.

On Wednesday, at least to those within the horse industry, the descriptions of the decoupling bill by its sponsor, Anderson, had to have resonated as a mind-boggling array of double-speak.

“The whole intention of this legislation is to ensure that live racing does not end,” Anderson said.

With specific regard to a committee member's question about how decoupling might affect live racing at Tampa, Anderson postulated that, “we don't believe there will be any impact at all to Tampa Bay Downs.”

Asked a similar question about Gulfstream, Anderson replied, “this bill is providing [a] pathway to preserve the industry” that “guarantees racing into the future.”

Powell, who said he was testifying on behalf of not just the FTBOA but of all of the united horsemen-supported spheres of influence in the state, told legislators not to buy what he alleged was Anderson's intentional use of opaque language.

“Though it may be said this [bill] does good for the Thoroughbred industry, what that means, as presented so far, [is] 'good for the Thoroughbred racetracks,'” Powell said.

“As far as the horse people, it's not good. We oppose it. We oppose it just like we did last year. Decoupling is just, simply, not being committed to live racing, [and] the revenue share that used to go to the horse people gets kept by the racetracks,” Powell said.

“You'll hear much more about the destruction of decoupling,” Powell forewarned. “You heard it all last session.”

Powell told the committee members that when Anderson spoke of purported flexibility in the form of the bill's options to transfer racetrack permits, what the sponsor was really trying to do was execute a legislative strategy based on “permit confusion.”

“It's an attempt to toss out lots of 'shining-star' options,” Powell explained. “However, they're all extremely speculative. Does anybody really know, especially as we try to look at the wording, which is not clear, are these certain options? Are these even realistic or even possible, [and] are they even viable economically?”

Two committee members were clearly on the side of horsemen in opposing the legislation.

One was Rep. Yvonne Hinson, whose district includes part of Marion County, the heart of Florida's Thoroughbred breeding and horse-raising territory.

“Decoupling is a multi-billion-dollar threat to Florida's world-renowned Thoroughbred legacy,” Hinson said, echoing nearly verbatim arguments she made before the very same committee last year. “I beg you all not to destroy five or six generations of the Florida equine industry.”

Another was Rep. Angie Nixon, whose district is in the northeast part of the state.

“I believe in honoring contracts, especially contracts with voters. The casinos wouldn't have even been established if not for the races and the Thoroughbred owners. And so it doesn't make sense that now they can kind of be pushed out of the deal, so to speak,” Nixon said.

No executives from either Gulfstream or Tampa spoke during the public testimony portion of the hearing.

In summation of his bill just prior to the committee's vote, Anderson was given the floor one final time to make closing remarks.

“It appears that most of the concerns here with this legislation is what the potential impacts could be if racing ceases in the state of Florida. Those are concerns that we are addressing in this bill,” Anderson said.

“So I want to remind everyone that today, there is nothing that requires a track to continue racing. Today, any Thoroughbred racing permit-holder could stop racing tomorrow if they want, which would send shock waves reverberating through the industry, and would, in fact, cause a lot of the concerns that were being brought up today in public testimony,” Anderson said.

“So I remind everyone of the provisions that we add in here: The transferability of licenses, to ensure that the industry can continue in the free market, [and] the four years of visibility and notice that doesn't exist today,” Anderson said.

“Four years should be enough time if there is a Thoroughbred permit-holder that wants to get out of the industry. For whatever reason it is, that's enough time for the industry to adjust, enough time to transfer that permit, enough time to ensure that racing continues,” Anderson said.

The bill then got reported favorably by the subcommittee by what appeared to be at least a 10-6 margin. (Several voice votes were inaudible during the roll call, and the Florida legislature's web page for the bill had not posted the official vote tally prior to deadline for this story.)

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