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State Issues Archive

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)

Posted in State Issues on May 27, 2005

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.

Posted in State Issues on May 24, 2005

“It’s Dying”

I went to Suffolk Downs on Thursday afternoon to see a horse and place a Kentucky Derby future wager. There was a small clubhouse crowd of regulars marking up the Form and trading stories about the horses they almost had. In the grandstand, the TVs were turned on, but the first floor concourse was empty and I watched a race alone before heading out the far doors and toward the backstretch. I called my trainer friend to ask in which barn I’d find the horse, and, as long as I had him on the phone, asked what he thought of Suffolk’s decision to cancel its open stakes program this year. “It’s dying,” he said. “It’s the clearest sign yet that the track is dying.”

That’s pessimism. And my friend’s not the only one who feels that way. Another trainer told John Connolly of the Boston Herald that, “We’re looking at the beginning of the end here,” and connected the track’s decision to the state lottery’s announcement the day before that a new Keno-style horseracing game would be unveiled this fall. Suffolk COO Robert O’Malley insists the call was made for strictly financial reasons. “We had a terrible first quarter,” said O’Malley. “I’m a half-million behind in money for purses. And the [purse account], from which we got $1.2 million in 2003, and $800,000 last year, will give us only $200,000 this year. The account is practically empty. I’m just about $1 million short, and this will give us $1 million in savings.”

So, canceling the MassCap and the rest of the open stakes saves a million this year. And the year after that? “The handwriting is on the wall for racing around here,” O’Malley said. “We were forced to give up the frills this year with the elimination of the MassCap, and if we don’t get slots this year, or are adversely affected by a virtual racing game, next year we would probably be forced to cut daily purses to survive” (Daily Item of Lynn). Of course, if Suffolk does that, it will be even more difficult to attract horsemen to Massachusetts for the short meet. A new racing bill must be passed by the end of 2005; perhaps hope for Suffolk can be found in the state legislature, either by the passage of an equitable racing bill that props up purse money, or by slots legislation.

But slots or state subsidies are only short-term solutions. I confess: I’m a reluctant slots supporter. I’m eager to see Suffolk Downs survive, and if slots can buy the track a few more years, I say bring them in. Yet expanded gaming won’t solve New England’s long-term racing woes, and slots won’t change the reality that the land Suffolk sits on is more valuable as development than it is as a track. The track has two train stops, it’s minutes from downtown Boston, the airport, and the harbor, and it’s one of the largest (if not the largest) parcels of open land in a densely built metro area with an overheated real estate market. It would take more than slots to change that equation.

Thoroughbred racing will leave New England. It’s inevitable. Stan Bergstein, in a Daily Racing Form column on the intersection of racing, globalization, and technology, quotes a lecture given by Bill Shanklin at the recent Thoroughbred Racing Associations and Harness Tracks of America joint conference:

Shanklin told the track operators that all of the graduate business students worldwide could be taught by 200 professors using simulcasting and wireless technology … noting that a university in Philadelphia broadcasts a class at 2 p.m. Eastern so that students in various countries around the world are able to “attend” during their normal waking hours. “How many racetracks would it take to supply the world’s demand for simulcasting and account wagering?” Shanklin asks.

Not many, I’d answer. The major circuits — New York, California, Florida, Kentucky — will find ways to survive, as will tracks such as Oaklawn that host boutique meets enticing to tourists and trainers with quality horses. Tracks like Suffolk, without enough purse money to draw the really good horses, and thus schedule the races attractive to big simulcasting handle, will close.

I think that’s the saddest thing I’ve written on this site.

Related: State Senator Michael Morrissey (D-Quincy) has scheduled a public meeting on the proposed state lottery racing game for Thursday, April 14, at 10 a.m. in room A2 of the State House.

Posted in State Issues, Suffolk Downs on April 8, 2005

Lottery Bets on Horses

Virtual horses, not live horses. Is the Massachusetts State Lottery trying to off Suffolk Downs? As a beleaguered New England racing fan, it’s hard not to think the most dire thoughts when confronted by news like this:

The Boston Globe reports that the racing game will operate much like other Keno, with a race playing every four minutes. Players will be able to bet win, place, or show (and possibly bet combinations), and that minimum bets will likely be $1 or $2.
The hysterical reaction: Ohmigod!
The more considered reaction: Suffolk is running out of time. Modest gains in attendance and handle at the end of the last year’s meet weren’t enough to keep the development vultures from circling this winter. Slots legislation appears stalled, even as New Hampshire moves ahead, with a vote on slots in our northern neighbor scheduled for April 7. It’s even possible to read this move by the state lottery as an indication of how unlikely slots are in Massachusetts — the lottery commission was, after all, angling to manage the state’s racinos, should they ever be created. That the lottery has gone ahead and developed a racing game that it expects to bring in $150 million a year could be a sign that lottery powers consider slots dead. And that means live thoroughbred racing at Suffolk might be facing its last year.
Related: “A state Lottery official and the chairman of the State Racing Commission say a new ‘virtual horse racing’ game will not draw fans away from live horse racing or simulcast races. ‘It might well attract greater interest in horse racing in Massachusetts,’ said Joseph Betro, state racing chairman.” (The Enterprise)

Posted in State Issues on April 5, 2005