Sundries
I meant to address all of these stories last week in longer posts, but never found the time …
In a report issued last Thursday, consultants to the Massachusetts State Lottery said that slot machines at the state’s racetracks would bring in $1.1 billion annually without cannibalizing lottery revenues and that launching a Keno-style horseracing game would boost existing Keno revenue $168 million. The slots numbers boost slot supporters’ arguments, not that the report is likely to have much effect on the slots debate when it’s taken up again in March. As for the Keno game, the lottery tried to introduce it last spring, but gave up after some legislators opposed the game out of worry over its effect on Suffolk Downs. In typical fashion, the Boston Globe and Boston Herald report the same information, but the Globe downplays slots and the state’s racing industry, the Herald puts both at the center.
Friends of New York Racing is urging New York legislators to require that any bidder for the NYRA franchise commit to improving living conditions for backstretch workers at the state’s three tracks. In a report released last week, FONYR recommends renovating “existing dormitories … to meet State Department of Health and OSHA standards” and notes that “although women comprise nearly 35% of the backstretch work force, only 16% of the available rooms are assigned for use by women.” An appendix details the squalor.
Andy Stronach wants to help rookie horseplayers. With SheTips. I still hate this idea.
Limping Into the New Year
It’s January 2 and Suffolk Downs, along with Massachusetts’ three other racetracks, is open today for simulcasting, thanks to a 90-day extension of existing simulcasting law that was passed by the state legislature only two days before the previous law was set to expire. To secure the bill, which had been held up throughout December because of a disagreement over expanding simulcasting, the House agreed to debate and vote on a slots bill that was passed by the Senate last fall in March. House speaker Sal DiMasi is already saying though that the expanded simulcasting dispute must be resolved before the slots issue can be taken up again. Expect more foot dragging on the matter as March draws near.
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In New York, NYRA narrowly averted bankruptcy by accepting a $30 million bailout from the state. Alan at Left at the Gate has been following the story closely and has all the details of the deal.
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Bay Meadows days are numbered:
Opponents of a plan to demolish the historic Bay Meadows racetrack to make way for homes, stores and offices failed to get enough valid signatures to place the issue before voters in the June election, San Mateo city officials said Wednesday.
The signature-gathering effort fell 136 names short of the 4,661 valid signatures needed to get the issue placed on the ballot. More than 1,100 of the 5,700 signatures that had been gathered on the petition were invalidated by the San Mateo County Registrar of Voters, which requires that signers be registered voters in the county.
Owners of the site said they plan to immediately move forward with the redevelopment project, which will convert the 83-acre racetrack into a community with 1,250 homes, 1.25 million square feet of office space, 15 acres of parkland, and 150,000 square feet of stores and restaurants.
Racetrack supporters say they’re not giving up. “We’re not finished yet,” said Linda Schinkel, founder of Friends of Bay Meadows.
Still Waiting …
Massachusetts racetracks gambled big this fall, combining legislation legalizing slots with an uncontroversial simulcasting bill that had to pass for the state’s tracks to continue simulcasting past December 31. Despite a veto-proof approval by the Senate in October, the legislative session ended in mid-November without a House vote, which effectively killed slots for the year (if not for the foreseeable future) and provoked the specter of the tracks laying off workers and closing for at least a couple of weeks at the start of 2006 until a bill reauthorizing simulcasting could be passed. There remained one hope: That the bill would pass during the informal session going on now.
On Sunday afternoon, House speaker Sal DiMasi said that he might bring the simulcasting bill to the floor on Monday, although he hadn’t made up his mind about allowing a vote on a bill that expanded simulcasting (one idea floated recently in lieu of approving slots) or any other gaming. House dean David Flynn said he’d oppose such an action, which is enough to prevent a vote in informal session, in favor of pushing for unlimited simulcasting rights and a commitment for a House debate on slots in March. That the simulcasting bill wasn’t brought up on Monday or today could mean he followed through on the threat.
Flynn is a supporter of the tracks, yet I wonder if he’s not misguided in his opposition to DiMasi’s proposal. Expanding simulcasting would help the tracks, relying as much as they do on simulcasting handle to survive, but the loss of a couple weeks revenue is only going to hurt, especially if that expansion isn’t approved — which isn’t an entirely impossible outcome. (And there’s also the matter that without slots or a dramatic surge in the number of track patrons, the state’s tracks are pretty much doomed, anyway. All that’s being argued over really is how long they’ll be allowed to linger before dying.) Two and a half weeks remain before the tracks are forced to go completely dark. I’m hoping, for the sake of track employees and next year’s purse account, that state lawmakers can figure out how to pass a bill that allows simulcasting before that deadline arrives.
12/15 Addition: A meeting of the state’s racetrack operators on Wednesday ended with Raynham dog track owner George Carney storming out after the other executives made clear they were interested in a rollover of existing law. “Carney said he will stick to his guns — and is even prepared to watch simulcasting expire on Dec. 31.”
Doubting Slots
Racinos are coming to Florida. Whether that’s such a great development is in some doubt.
Related: Slots change a lot of things at the track, not least the quiet ambience of a typical grandstand on a weekday.
Mass. Slots Watch
The Massachusetts fall legislative session ends tomorrow and barring some last minute surprise House vote on the slots-simulcasting bill passed by the Senate in October, that means not only will the racetracks’ best chance of getting slot machines in years pass by, but that as of January 1, all will have to close their doors and layoff workers for at least a couple of weeks, until a bill reauthorizing simulcasting is approved when the legislature reconvenes in the new year. Which can’t be good news for struggling Suffolk Downs, relying as much as it does on simulcasting handle. Is it the end? I know, I’ve fretted about this already in two lengthy posts (here and here) this year, so I won’t again. Still, what a shame. For want of the slot money already lost by Massachusetts residents in neighboring states, thoroughbred racing in New England will almost certainly disappear.
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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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