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Canadian Horse Tracks Hot for Slots

"The slots room is generating gross revenues of $7.2 million a month, according to the most recent performance figures available.

"From the gross revenues, about 40 per cent goes to cover operating costs, 10 per cent goes to the track's owners and 10 per cent goes to the racehorse-owners in the form of purses to the winners of races. The municipality gets 5 per cent of revenues from the first 450 slot machines and 2 per cent from the rest.

"The provincial government, through the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp., receives the bulk of the gross revenues - something in the range of 40 per cent - and allocates 2 per cent of the gross to programs designed to help problem gamblers.

"So successful has the slot-machine program been at Ontario racetracks that Quebec's racing agency, the Societe Nationale du Cheval de Course, is imploring the provincial government to allow Loto-Quebec to operate slot machines at Quebec tracks. The machines can help save the flagging horse-racing industry by pumping revenue into the tracks, the agency says.

"Under the organization's proposal, the cash-strapped Hippodrome de Montreal - the Decarie Blvd. track also known by its former moniker, Blue Bonnets - would replace the 200 video-lottery machines now humming at its track with 1,250 brand-new slot machines.

"...It is widely acknowledged in the gambling world that fans of turf racing stick to the ponies and don't play the slots.

"But that doesn't mean the horse players don't appreciate the slots players. Since slot machines were introduced at Ontario tracks, the prize purses have increased dramatically - which in turn means that when there is live racing at Rideau Carleton and its sister tracks, better horses compete..."

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