Odds On Racing - Harness Racing

Newest Pennsylvania Racino

February 18, 2008

The newest player, the Hollywood Casino at Penn National, opened last week. Located 15 miles east of Harrisburg, the razed the old Penn National Racecourse grandstand and clubhouse made way for a $310 million gaming and racing complex. A rabid crowd spilled across the casino’s main floor, eager to get their paws on one of the 2,000 slot machines. Look for another 3,000 later this year.

As for the horsemen, they’re smiling, too. Purses have soared to about $110,000 a day, double what they were last September. Look for those to climb over the 204 race days in 2008. But not everyone is a happy camper.

Tony Dutrow typifies the “everyday horseman.” They’re the ones who put in the hours and the hard work but have never been blessed with the “big horse” that garners a trainer national acclaim.

“Look what’s happening at Delaware Park; they want to get rid of racing,” complained Dutrow from his barn at Philadelphia Park. “Once the management gets what they want (slot machines), racing is viewed as a side business that costs them a lot of money to operate.”

Penn National’s racino is dolled up in an Art Deco style that features memorabilia and the appearance of a Hollywood set, often saluting the “golden era of Hollywood,’’ mainly the 1930s and ’40s.

Adjacent to the Hollywood Sky Box Sports Bar on the second floor is a simulcast area with an eye-popping video wall of two-dozen 50-inch flat screen monitors where gamblers can wager on races from across the country.

True, but once the slot machines are up and humming, racing becomes a necessary evil, says Rick Abbott, acting commissioner of the Pennsylvania Racing Commission. Without racing, there are no casinos. It’s that simple, says Abbott.

“It is critical that racing has an advocate,” he said. “They need a liaison between the racing industry and the gaming control board that oversees the slots operations.”

Enter Melinda Tucker. Previously a section chief for Racetrack Gaming in Louisiana, she provided legal counsel to the Louisiana Gaming Control Board on issues involving gaming at racing facilities. Tucker signed on with the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board two years ago.

“When slots come in, racing takes a back seat,” said Tucker, a former Assistant District Attorney in New Orleans. “Let’s face it, the primary concern is gaming revenues. That’s what gaming companies do. They are unfamiliar with the intricacies of horse racing, so it doesn’t always make a good marriage.”

The other whammy is that the gaming control board has limited experience with horse racing and the sport’s legislation.

“My job is to act as a bridge,” says the former assistant district attorney in New Orleans. “Diplomacy hasn’t been my forte, but to my delight I’ve been well received.”

Etched into Pennsylvania’s gaming act of 2004 is the provision for a substantial marketing budget to promote both thoroughbred and harness racing under the Department of Agriculture.

“It’s in there and those dollars can’t be used to advertise slots,” Abbott explained. “Racing and breeding racehorses is part of agri-tourism, and they are to be marketed like any other agriculture product in the state.”

Pennsylvania has broken new ground with Tucker’s post. No other states with racinos have hired someone to make sure that the gaming law provisions related to racing are enforced.

“Some lawmakers believed that horsemen are employees of the racetrack,” Tucker noted. “They’re not, horsemen are independent contractors. There are a lot of misconceptions. They look at them as small issues, but I view them as big ones in how this whole marriage unfolds.”