New York Bill Would Divert Horse Racing Funds

November 19, 2021 by Leave a Comment
Wagering Tote self service machine

copyright AGameofSkill.com

ALBANY — State legislators have introduced a bill that would shift approximately $230 million in annual funding from slot machines and paid to horse racing tracks and breeders and redistribute it to schools, human services and other causes.

The legislation, sponsored by state Sen. Zellnor Myrie, D-Brooklyn, and Assemblywoman Linda Rosenthal, D-Manhattan, is also backed by a cadre of animal rights groups and social services non-profits, who said they plan to use advertising and grassroots organizing to draw attention to the issue.

“The state has been propping up this industry for decades and there is no reason for that to continue, especially when we need the money the state has been giving to the industry,” Rosenthal said in an interview.

The supplemental payments to horse racing also have defenders in the Democratic caucus, like state Sen. Joseph Addabo, D-Queens, who said the money helps preserve jobs created by the industry.

The bill would allocate a portion of slot machine revenues to…

More on this New York bill and how it affects horse racing in NY

Filed Under: Horse Racing News, Horse Racing Promotion | Marketing, Horse Racing Survival, racino Tagged With: , , , ,

Can a Hawthorne ‘Racino’ Keep Horse Racing Alive in Chicago?

July 28, 2021 by Leave a Comment

My first day at Arlington Park was one of the most momentous of my life.

It was July 1, 1996. My father’s wife was in town for a conference, and he needed to kill an afternoon. He suggested the track.

Even before we walked inside, I was awed by Arlington. From Northwest Highway, the grandstand resembled a splendid resort hotel. Its roof, a cowl painted the green of ancient copper, floated above the summer trees. Outside the gate, a garden spelled out A-R-L-I-N-G-T-O-N in red begonias.

Inside, the very worst thing that can happen to a novice gambler happened to me: I won a lot of money…

Filed Under: Horse Racing News, racino Tagged With: , , ,

Horse Racing Ends as Marquis Downs will be permanently shut down. Casino Lives On

March 17, 2021 by Leave a Comment

Saskatchewan’s horse racing community is in shock after Saskatoon’s Prairieland Park announced it is permanently cancelling horse racing [in Canada].

“For Prairieland to shut the future of horse racing in Saskatchewan down is numbing,” said Eddie Esquirol, president of the Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protection Association and the owner of 30 race horses.

“There’s 500 people involved in the industry.”

Esquirol said 40 to 50 per cent of people in the industry in Saskatchewan are Indigenous.

He said people are going to be forced to relocate to Manitoba or Alberta if they want to continue with horse racing.

“It’s a real gut punch for the horse racing industry in Saskatchewan,” said trainer Anita Gardipy.

Gardipy’s family has been training horses for many generations.

Filed Under: Horse Racing News, racino Tagged With: , ,

South Sioux City horse race track to offer gambling

November 11, 2020 by Leave a Comment

SOUTH SIOUX CITY, Iowa (KCAU) – After decades of rejecting casino gambling, Nebraska voters overwhelmingly approved measures [election day] to allow it at state-licensed horse racing tracks.

There’s been some hurdles along the way for those in favor of legalizing gambling in Nebraska. Back in September, opponents fought hard to keep the issue off the ballot, filing a lawsuit that was rejected by the Nebraska Supreme Court.

“It was a big accomplishment even getting it on the ballot and then once it got on there it approved vary easily and that tells me just looking at it that people are okay with it and are approving it,” said South Sioux City Mayor Rod Koch.

In Nebraska, only limited forms of gambling are currently available like keno.

The initiative passing Tuesday night changes that. The state constitution will now allow slot machines and table gambling at horse tracks in Nebraska…

Filed Under: Horse Racing News, racino Tagged With: , ,

PA Governor proposes using Funds from Horse Racing to help with college tuition

February 14, 2020 by Leave a Comment

“Three years ago the governor signed a bill to create that trust fund that couldn’t be touched, and now three years later he’s coming back and taking $200 million out of 250 dollars. All those jobs would be lost, all these horses would have to be re-homed, the economy would be devastated.” ~ Kim Hankins, the executive director of Meadows Standard Bred Owners Association

WASHINGTON, Pa. — Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf is proposing to cut $204 million from the Race Horse Development Fund and moving it to help college students with tuition.

The governor says the money would support the Nellie Bly tuition program, which provides financial assistance to targeted full-time students who agree to stay in Pennsylvania for the same number of years for which they receive the benefit.

Governor Wolf tells Channel 11′s Cara Sapida that the legislature would need to approve the transfer of the tax dollars going to purse winnings for owners, trainers and jockeys, and redirect them to this scholarship program.

Pete Peterson, executive director of the Pennsylvania Equine Coalition, told Channel 11 that money in the Race Horse Development Trust Fund comes from an assessment paid by casinos on their gross terminal revenues from slot machine gaming. The legislature noted in the 2017 Race Horse Industry Reform Act that the money isn’t funds of the Commonwealth and that the “Commonwealth shall not be rightfully entitled to any money” in the RHDTF.

Filed Under: Horse Racing News, Horse Racing Survival, racino Tagged With: , , , ,

New Competition for Oaklawn Park in Arkansas?

February 8, 2020 by Leave a Comment

Competition is coming for Oaklawn Racing Casino Resort in Hot Springs.

Of course, it’s always faced competitors in the form of other thoroughbred racetracks and then, later, in the form of the electronic “games of skill” also offered by Southland Park (now Southland Casino Racing) in West Memphis, as well as the myriad other ways in which people spend money to entertain themselves.

But with the opening of the Saracen Annex in Pine Bluff, to be joined later this year by the full-fledged Saracen Casino Resort, Oaklawn faces head-to-head competition in its own backyard.

Gaming industry experts told our Mark Friedman that Arkansas’ gambling market probably wasn’t yet saturated. But the Saracen Annex, which opened for business in late September, already appears to be cutting into Oaklawn’s terminal and slot machine wagers, which fell 15.7% in the fourth quarter of 2019, compared with the same period in 2018.

More:

Filed Under: Horse Racing News, Horse Racing Survival, racino Tagged With: , ,

Controversial betting machines headed to Nebraska horse tracks

August 7, 2019 by Leave a Comment

LINCOLN — The Nebraska Racing Commission rejected the position of the state’s attorneys in voting Wednesday to install controversial machines that take wagers at Nebraska’s thoroughbred tracks.

Commissioners voted 3-2 during a meeting at Grand Island’s Fonner Park racetrack to allow the machines, which are used to bet on historical horse races. The same board approved the machines in October but then nullified that vote amid warnings that the meeting had violated state open meeting rules.

Chris Kotulak, the CEO of Fonner Park, praised Wednesday’s decision, saying it would pump millions of tax dollars into state coffers and provide a much-needed boost to the state’s struggling thoroughbred racetracks.

“It will be the urgent shot in the arm to help the horse racing industry,” Kotulak said. “The surrounding states that offer thoroughbred racing all have additional gaming that supplements their purse money. They’re taking away the horses and trainers.”

Meanwhile, the head of a leading anti-gambling group in Nebraska promised a swift legal challenge to the commission’s action. The Nebraska Attorney General’s Office has said the commission lacks the power to approve a new form of legalized betting in the state.

“It’s a slot machine,” said Pat Loontjer of Gambling with the Good Life. “It walks like a duck, it talks like a duck — it’s a duck.”

More:

Filed Under: Horse Racing News, racino Tagged With: , , , ,

Annual Report on Casino Gaming’s Impact on PA’s Horse Racing Industry

April 9, 2018 by Leave a Comment

racino slots machinePennsylvania Gaming Control Board Releases Latest Casino Data

HARRISBURG, Pa., April 2, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board released the Annual Racetrack Casino Benchmark Report detailing the impact of Pennsylvania casinos on the Commonwealth’s horse racing industry. The report is now available for download from the PGCB’s web site www.gamingcontrolboard.pa.gov. The report includes and compares information from the 2017 calendar year.… [Read more…]

Filed Under: racino Tagged With: , ,

Century Casinos to present at Global Chinese Financial Forum Conference in Toronto, Canada

September 25, 2017 by Leave a Comment

Century Casino logoCOLORADO SPRINGS, Colo., Sept. 25, 2017 /CNW/ — Century Casinos, Inc. (NASDAQ Capital Market®: CNTY) announced today that the company will attend the 18 th Annual Global Chinese Financial Forum Conference in Toronto, Canada on September 30, 2017. Peter Hoetzinger, President & Co CEO, will present the company and hold one-on-one meetings with selected institutional investors.… [Read more…]

Filed Under: Industry Profiles, racino Tagged With: , ,

Hollywood’s Seminole Hard Rock Rake in Over Half a Billion Dollars

August 31, 2017 by Leave a Comment

racino slots machineSouth Florida racetrack casino owners merely shake their head when they asked how they can “compete” with the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, and my recent calculations explain why. It’s because the Seminole Hard Rock’s haul for the past fiscal year ending June 30, 2016, totaled more than $579 million. That’s more than… [Read more…]

Filed Under: racino Tagged With: , , , ,
Next Page »