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Missouri Digital News
MDN.ORG
Mo. Digital News
Missouri Digital News
MDN.ORG:
Mo. Digital News
MDN.ORG:
Missouri Digital News
MDN.ORG:
Missouri Digital News
MDN.ORG
Mo. Digital News
Missouri Digital News
MDN.ORG:
Mo. Digital News
MDN.ORG:
Missouri Digital News
JEFFERSON CITY - More than ten years after Missouri voters approved horse racing by a margin of almost 66 percent in 1986, there are still no tracks in the state.
For the past several years, some lawmakers have argued that race tracks, alone, are not enough -- that off-track betting needs to be approved to get a bit of Kentucky in Missouri.
A bill sponsored by Sen. President Pro Tem Bill McKenna, D-Barnhart, would allow the simulcast of out-of-state races as an incentive to build tracks for live racing.
"There will be no simulcasting in Missouri without a track," McKenna said. "That's the golden carrot. In order to get simulcast, they have to build a track."
McKenna said investors are hesitant to build tracks without simulcast because millions of dollars are lost each year hosting live races. The only way to stay in business is to simulcast races from other states. Even with simulcast, tracks on their own loose $1 million a year.
For the past several years, however, legislation to legalize off-track betting has floundered in the legislature after encountering stiff anti-gambling opposition.
"I think that it is an inefficient way to collect taxes and support the government," said Sen. Harold Caskey, D-Butler, a major opponent to legalized gambling for several years. "It takes money from people's pockets who should be feeding their families."
Missouri tried horse racing for several years in Sedalia during the Missouri State Fair and ended up loosing close to $150,000 each year.
"Live racing looses so much money," said William Bork, president and chief executive operating officer of Penn-National Race Course, a Pennsylvania based racing company with investment interests in Missouri. "Without simulcast it does not work. Like any other business you've got to bring the product to the people. How do you think the lottery would do if you could only buy tickets in one convenience store?"
Horse racing has the potential to gross some $80 million annually, of which $1.3 million in profit would go to Missouri schools, according to McKenna.
"Right now, half the cars in Farmont (Park Racetrack, Illinois) are from Missouri," McKenna said. "We ought to keep the money."
Penn-National, with three operating tracks split between Pennsylvania and Virginia, pays out an average purse of $65,000 a day. Although the company is courting locations in three other states, they are eyeing real estate near metropolitan areas in Missouri.
Proponents of horse racing stress that it is a completely different industry from riverboat casinos.
"We feel confident that we could literally start a new industry in Missouri," Bork said. "That's what we represent. And with simulcast we feel that we can compete with Riverboats."
The Senate gave the off-track betting proposal first-round approval. But the chances of the bill reaching the governor's desk appear dim.
There are only a few weeks left in the session. And with the narrow-one vote margin in the Senate, a filibuster is likely when the bill comes up for final approval approval in the Senate.
With time running out and the strong emotion surrounding gaming, the bill faces an uphill battle.