Gaming News

New laws don't help Florida horse industry

POMPANO BEACH, Florida -- As reported by the Florida Sun Sentinel: "They gathered signatures in the rain and wore bright red T-shirts on sunny-day petition drives they hoped would bring slot machines to local racetracks. They used their experience as horse owners and trainers to lobby county commissioners on behalf of their bosses, looking ahead to the possibilities of new casinos and the promise of a comfortable living.

"The casinos arrived. The nice living? Not so much.

"'We thought once the slot machines got here, we'd be able to stay home for good,' said Brian Hauck, whose family has trained harness-racing horses at Pompano Beach's racetrack since 1964.

"This week he's packing up his 10 horses and moving to Indiana, saying he cannot survive after the track, now called The Isle Casino and Racing at Pompano Park, cut purses for trainers and owners by as much as 35 percent.

"...More than a dozen owners and trainers interviewed last week gave similar descriptions of an ailing industry they said has not benefited from new laws allowing slot machines at pari-mutuel tracks in Broward County. Pompano Park is the only horse racetrack casino in the country not required by law or contract to share slot revenues with the horse racing people who anchor the casinos, industry experts said.

"...Horse owners in Pompano said not only are they cut out of the slots windfall, they pay fees to the racetrack. Pompano Park is thought to be the only track in the country that charges barn rent to active racers, said Jane Murray, executive director of the Florida Standardbred Breeders & Owners Association. The track charges $100 per month for each of its 700 stalls, a $250 yearly electricity charge for owners of golf carts used to navigate the sprawling complex and higher fees to vendors such as veterinarians and blacksmiths.

"Combined with South Florida's soaring costs for feed and grain, the outlook is grim for people who make their living breeding and racing Standardbred horses..."

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