Tracks gambling on slot machines
Valley Race Park GM says plan levels playing field with other states
AUSTIN — Texas’ ailing racing industry is planning an expensive gamble for survival — a $3 million campaign and lobbying effort to bring slot machines to the state’s horse and dog tracks.
Texans for Economic Development, the umbrella group for track owners, breeders and other segments of the racing industry, has budgeted $1 million to contribute to campaigns in the 2008 legislative elections and $2 million for a lobbying effort to convince lawmakers that the tracks need slot machines to survive, the Austin American-Statesman reported Wednesday.
In Harlingen, Robert L. Bork, president and general manager of Valley Race Park, is excited about the prospects with money earmarked to support slot machines in Texas.
“We’ve been trying for a number of sessions,” Bork said Wednesday. “What it would do is level the playing field with surrounding states who already have slots.
“It’s very important for us,” Bork added.
At Valley Race Park a new building would probably have to be built to handle the slot business.
The park’s restaurant, too, would be open every day.
“We would have to add a new building,” said Valley Race Park assistant general manager Milt Roth. “That’s okay, we have extra land.”
Bork added, “Little Valley Race Park would become one of the premier greyhound tracks in the country. It would have an impact to everyone in the state. With Padre Island known as a resort area, it would certainly help that.”
“I think it would be great for the area,” said Roth. “It would help the economy tremendously. We need something to make us competitive with everyone around us.”
It’s a tough sell. State lawmakers have brought up the possibility of slots at tracks in the past, but all efforts have failed under opposition to expanding gambling in Texas.
Proponents want Texas voters to decide.
Group President Tommy Azopardi said the $1 million will be targeted on about a dozen races in the state House of Representatives.
“It’s not about Democrats and Republicans, it’s not about the speaker’s race,” Azopardi said. “It’s not about anything other than, ‘Are you for VLTs (slot machines) or not?”’
The effort is sure to run into the same opposition that killed previous efforts when the Legislature reconvenes in regular session in January 2009. Opponents fear something that could mimic casino wagering found in Las Vegas and other wagering hotspots.
“It’s not economic development,” said Suzii Paynter, director of the Christian Life Commission associated with Texas Baptists. “It’s pork to a few track owners. It’s casino operators looking for a door into the state.”
According to figures reporting to the Texas Racing Commission, the state’s seven major tracks are all losing money, sometimes in the millions of dollars a year.
“The figures don’t lie,” Azopardi said.
Racing was once among the top sports in America but has struggled over several decades to compete for the money and interest spent on other sports, entertainment and gambling.
The dog racing track in Corpus Christi is closing for a year, hoping the prospects for legislative help improve.
Scott Savin, chief operation officer of Southwest Florida Enterprises, which owns tracks in Florida and the Corpus Christi track, said the gambler’s appetite has gone away from studying and handicapping horses and dogs to the instant gratification of slot machines and card games.
Slot machines offer another form of entertainment at the track. Revenue, however, pays for larger race purses, which attract better animals and larger fields.
Paynter opposes expanding gambling in Texas on many fronts.
Any boom in construction jobs would be temporary before gambling money is diverted from the consumer economy. Money gambled is money not spent on clothes and household goods and services, Paynter said.
While the industry says an expansion could bring back billions of dollars going to other states, Paynter says it would also create a new class of gambler.
“Slot machines are much more addictive that other gambling attractions,” she said.
Azopardi said Texans should be allowed to decide the issue on a statewide vote.
“Until you let the people vote on this issue, it’s not going away,” he said.
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Buddy Green contributed to this report, special to the Star.
