Odds Improve for Mass. Slots
So say some state legislators (Boston Herald):
A small group of House lawmakers, including state Rep. Brian Wallace (D-South Boston), has been quietly lobbying colleagues and meeting with racetrack executives and union officials for more than a year. Buoyed by the state Senate’s 26-9 vote to legalize thousands of slots at the state’s struggling racetracks, Wallace and other pro-slots lawmakers plan to start pushing for a vote as soon as next week.
Mass. Senate Votes on Slots
Update: The bill passed the Senate by 26-9 (Boston Globe). That’s two to three votes more than internal polling in the State House suggested last week and enough to override a likely veto by the governor (two senators have recused themselves from considering any slots legislation because of potential conflicts of interest, bringing the 2/3 majority required from 27 to 26 votes). Before going to the House for the a vote, the bill will be debated at a committee hearing on October 18.
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The Massachusetts State Senate is set to vote on a combination slots and simulcasting bill today (Boston Herald). The proposal, which would allow each of the state’s four racetracks to install 2,000 slot machines, was introduced by Senate president Robert Travaglini yesterday. There are enough votes in the Senate to pass the bill, but getting it past the House and the governor will be tougher. Travaglini, whose district includes the Suffolk Downs and Wonderland tracks, is ready to deal with the opposition:
Travaglini said he is prepared to “compromise” and negotiate with House lawmakers in what he acknowledged could amount to some dealmaking. As far as [governor Mitt] Romney goes, Travaglini questioned how staunch the governor’s current anti-gambling sentiments are. Romney, during the recent state budget crisis, floated his own gambling plan. “The governor has changed his mind on that. Maybe he will do it again,” Travaglini said.
That’s a big maybe — Romney was quite clear a couple of weeks ago in saying that he’d veto any expanded gaming legislation. And representative Dan Bosley, a staunch gambling foe and co-chair of a pivotal committee, is speaking out strongly against Travaglini’s move:
Bosley, a top lieutenant of Speaker Salvatore F. DiMasi and the House’s most outspoken critic of expanded gambling, said the House would strip the gambling provision out of the simulcasting bill, setting up a showdown with the Senate. “We’re not bluffing,” Bosley said. ”Unfortunately, people have been sold a bill of goods on gambling. I hope the Senate does not have the votes to pass this, and I think the racing industry is playing a dangerous game here, because they’re putting all their eggs in one basket and it’s a basket the House will not pick up” (Boston Globe).
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I’m not so much disturbed by the anti-slots position of this Cambridge Chronicle editorial as I am by its view of the sport:
Horse racing — along with its poor cousin, dog racing — are decades past their prime. The days when an underdog horse like Seabiscuit could capture the country’s imagination are history. For all its tradition, the Kentucky Derby is a once-a-year TV show. The sport of kings still has its charms and its fans, but they are growing older and fewer by the year.
If that’s your context, then yes, the slots bill looks like a handout and a bad idea. Why prop up an archaism? But I can’t fault the writer — it’s racing that’s fallen down in its marketing responsibilities. The industry-wide push for slots sometimes seems to have crowded out other initiatives that might attract people to racing, or removed the incentives tracks have to entice customers. Why revamp facilities or get creative with promotions or wagering options if slots are the magic answer to all problems? I do sometimes fear that if slots spread this attitude will only grow worse. Every racetrack will become a casino first, with the horses tucked away in the back, watched by a tiny crowd, present only as a technicality.
No Slots Today
And most likely, no slots this year.
Earlier this week, news spread that Massachusetts racetracks were going for broke, urging state lawmakers to attach a proposal allowing slot machines to an uncontroversial simulcasting bill that had to be passed this fall for the state’s tracks to remain open, essentially daring gambling foes like the governor to shut the entire industry down. It was an audacious, desperate gamble. And like most longshot bets, it came to nothing.
Inklings of trouble for the proposal came yesterday when the State House schedule for Wednesday was posted. The entry for 11:00 a.m. read:
The Legislature’s Committee on Consumer Protection and Professional Licensure hears bills dealing with Keno, simulcasting, racing and the state Lottery. A bill authorizing slot machines is not on the committee’s agenda, although racetrack and racing industry workers plan to turn out in large numbers for the hearing.
The proposed slots and simulcasting bill was no longer up for discussion as had been expected, reported Scott Van Voorhis in the Boston Herald, because:
The co-chairman of a joint House and Senate committee weighing an extension of crucial simulcasting rights at the racetracks vowed that no action will be taken on the hot-button slots issue…. Rather, all gambling legislation is to go before a committee chaired by state Rep. Daniel Bosley (D-North Adams), long considered the voice of gambling opponents on Beacon Hill. “The committee is not going to hear anything having to do with slot machines,” [representative Vincent] Pedone said. “People who come up to [testify], they are going to be talking to a committee that cannot deal with the slot issue.”
Bosley told the Associated Press today that “he didn’t think any of the bills would win the backing of [his] committee.”
Hundreds of racetrack employees and supporters showed up at the State House this morning anyway. Dozens walked the sidewalk in front of the main entrance, carrying signs that read “4000 Jobs, $500 Million Tax Revenue” and “Suffolk Runs, the State Economy Wins.” Others handed out information sheets to passerby. Most packed into the Gardner Auditorium to applaud speakers in favor of expanded gaming.
“This is about jobs … 3500 jobs,” said Raynham dog track owner George Carney. Jockey Tammi Piermarini told the committee of the higher purses and larger field sizes she’s found riding at racetracks with slots. Senator Marc Pacheco, addressing the concerns of critics who argue that increased gambling brings increased social costs, looked around the crammed room and said to the committee, “I would ask everyone here to think about the social cost of every single one of these people losing their jobs.” For nearly three hours state politicians, horse breeders and trainers, racetrack owners and workers testified in support of legislation that was no longer under consideration.
What the crushing of the slots bill means for Massachusetts racing — particularly thoroughbred racing — isn’t hard to figure out. Suffolk Downs has been open for 70 years. Death knells have rung for the track before (it was even closed for two years in the early 1990s). But the situation seems different now. More dire. More urgent. Development vultures are circling, while attendance and handle stagnate. Slots are coming to New York thoroughbred tracks. The slot issue is very much alive in New Hampshire. After today, all that seems left to ask is, how much more time does horseracing have in Boston? One year? Two years?
Six weeks?
9/29 Addendum: I was feeling pessimistic last night, perhaps too much so. The fight isn’t over — the Boston Herald’s Scott Van Voorhis (who has done a fantastic job of breaking and staying on this story), reports this morning that the state Senate could pass a bill approving slots as early as next week. Of course, that bill would then have to pass the House and either be signed into law by the governor or have enough support among legislators to override a veto. Internal State House polling indicates that 23 or 24 of the state’s senators would support a slots bill. In the House, anywhere from 60 to 98 representatives would support some sort of expanded gaming. As as today, the numbers are there to pass such a bill, but not to overcome Romney’s likely veto. However, racetracks aren’t sparing any expense in trying to sway politicians to their side:
All told, track owners could spend as much as $250,000 this month alone on lobbying and public relations, one executive estimates. That could put the whole industry on track for a very expensive, even million-dollar tab for the year.
Suffolk Downs has hired two lobbying groups, one of which is headed by former House speaker Charles Flaherty. Wonderland dog track has hired four lobbying firms to represent its interests.
More: Suffolk Downs spokesman Christian Teja said the track was determined to survive. “It is a top priority to remain a racetrack, and expanding gaming will certainly help,” he said. “It is a critical time for Suffolk Downs and the racing industry, that’s no secret. We are going to try to survive one way or another” (Lowell Sun).
Betting Everything
Massachusetts racetracks gamble big:
The tracks are betting everything — including their very survival — in a last desperate roll of the dice to win a green light for slots, the Herald has learned.
Track supporters are planning to push a controversial proposal to OK thousands of one-armed bandits at dog and horse tracks tucked into a related, but noncontroversial State House bill, according to a key lawmaker and activists on both sides of the debate.
That bill, which would extend simulcasting rights that allow racetrack patrons to bet on races from around the country, must pass by year’s end or the state’s four racetracks will fold … “It’s betting the house — literally,” noted one gambling foe and State House observer. “It’s frightening.”
Supporters are planning to turn out by the hundreds to a legislative hearing on the simulcast bill Wednesday. The hearing will be held at 11:00 a.m. in the Gardner Auditorium at the State House.
Romney to Racetracks: Drop Dead
Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney makes no secret of his political aspirations. He dreams of winning the 2008 Republican presidential nomination and then the presidency, which means his policy positions on everything from birth control to health care to public security are pitched more to the narrow interests of the social conservative wing of his political party than to the desires of Commonwealth citizens. Fortunately, we’re not usually burdened by his politics because the Democrat-controlled legislature does a pretty good job of keeping the governor’s red state leanings in check. Unfortunately for racing fans, that won’t be the case when slots legislation finally comes to Romney for his signature.
A proposal to put 3,500 VLTs in the state’s four racetracks and at one unspecified location in western Massachusetts is likely to be debated in the legislature this month or sometime in October, and it enjoys a narrow majority of support. The prospect of slots legislation passing in Massachusetts hasn’t looked so promising in years, which is good news for the state’s struggling and sole remaining thoroughbred track, Suffolk Downs. But when anti-gambling crusaders in Iowa heard Massachusetts might expand gaming, they pouted and threatened “to hamper ticket sales for a Republican ‘Steak Fry’ fund-raiser in Dallas County, Iowa” (Boston Globe) unless Romney pledged to come out against any such legislation.
And guess what, Romney caved, writing in a letter to the editor published in today’s Globe:
I am not proposing, or even considering, an expansion of gaming. If someone were to bring forward a proposal, it is not something I would support given our economic circumstances and the social costs associated with gaming.
Got that? Romney will veto any slots legislation passed in Massachusetts this year, making it highly unlikely that the state will get slots in time to save Suffolk Downs from development. What remains of the state’s thoroughbred racing industry and the jobs it supports will be sacrificed to one man’s ambition and the prissy priorities of a bunch of bluenose Iowans.
It’s the Racing
Or, how to grow without relying on slots. Knowing that the machines won’t be legalized in Virgina anytime soon, or possibly ever, “Colonial Downs, which is in its ninth year, is something of a throwback in the racing industry, a facility that is counting on building a better racing product through year-round simulcasting at a wide-ranging network of off-track betting sites; by account wagering over the Internet and by telephone; by presenting full fields of competitive races into simulcast-land; and by making a day at the races comfortable for both new and old fans.” The strategy shows promise: racing days, handle, and attendance have increased in the past four years. (Daily Racing Form)
Slots — Bad Bet?
The stale, hazy air smells like a Greyhound bus station, or maybe that’s the nearby greyhound kennels.
The merry dinging and donging of the electronic games strikes a sharp contrast to the nervous and sometimes desperate-looking people watching their Social Security checks vanish before their eyes.
A bartender asks a customer if he’d like his chardonnay on ice.
All the while, one question keeps popping to mind: Have we gone completely insane?
You see, if some increasingly vocal Massachusetts officials have their way, this exact kind of sleazy slots parlor is about to infect a neighborhood near you.
McGrory’s argument against slots at Massachusetts racetracks, such as Suffolk Downs, can be reduced to this: Slots parlors are depressing and tempt the poor. If we must have slots, he writes, “License a resort-style casino designed to compete with what’s in Connecticut,” and “Put it far from any urban center.” Yes, let’s — because when slots are played in a casino that’s frequented by surburban vacationers, gambling is wholesome entertainment. When slots are played trackside in the city — possibly by people so tacky they want ice in their chardonnay — it’s exploitation.
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Boston mayor Thomas Menino announced his support for racetrack slots in May and has since come under criticism for taking campaign donations from Suffolk Downs officials and owners, and now from other gambling industry executives. The Boston Herald reports that the mayor received $1,000 each from Wonderland dog track owner Charles Sarkis and Harrah’s Entertainment executive Gary Loveman.
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A slots deal between NYRA and New York horsemen is nearing conclusion. “We’re pretty close to a deal,” said Alan Foreman, the counsel for the New York Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association. “We haven’t finalized anything, but I think we can get everything ironed out in the next 24 hours or so.” (Daily Racing Form)
Mass. Slots Bills Pending
A least half a dozen slots bills are pending before a Massachusetts legislature committee, although it appears unlikely there will be any debate on the bills before the fall. (Cape Code Times)
Signs of Life for Mass. Slots
The support of Boston mayor Thomas Menino for slot machines at state racetracks is bringing the issue back to life on Beacon Hill. No sign of a bill yet, though. Slots legislation was last introduced in 2003, when a bill legalizing slots came within 17 votes of passage. (Daily Item of Lynn)
Mayor Menino Supports Slots
The Boston Herald reports that Boston mayor Thomas Menino has come out in favor of slot machines at Suffolk Downs. “People say it’s about gambling. I look at it differently,” said Menino. “It’s about jobs. It’s about revenue.” Good for Menino — but when will the state legislature act? Time is running out for the track. The New York-based real estate development firm Vornado recently bought a stake in Suffolk and is on the verge of drawing up a redevelopment proposal for the parcel along with Boston developer and Suffolk board member Stephen Karp. “Without slot machines in the near future, the racing at Suffolk will cease and the property will be developed,” said Suffolk president John Hall. The situation can’t be stated any more bluntly than that.
The Herald jumps in with a pro-slots editorial: “Allowing slot machines at the state’s four racetracks would be an industry bailout. But when an industry’s worth bailing out, what’s wrong with that?”
Interesting that Menino’s comments and the Herald’s editorial comes so soon after Sunday’s Hot Dog Safari. Seems like there may have been a little lobbying for slots going on among the hot dog eating and family fun.
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Jessica Chapel writes and edits in Massachusetts. Railbird is a Thoroughbred horse racing blog published from June 2004 to July 2019. More / Contact
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