EBRO — Greyhound racing will continue at the track in Ebro despite predictions from some racing experts that it is a dying industry, the track president said Wednesday.
“Our plan is to continue dog racing,” said Stocky Hess, Ebro Greyhound Park president.
Betting on live racing has fallen from almost $1 billion in 1990 to $258 million last year in Florida, home to 12 of the 21 U.S. tracks that regularly hold live dog races.
Hess said the track’s handle is up, and it is committed to offering live greyhound racing.
The owners of many tracks — along with ghost tracks that now offer only simulcast racing — are aiming to survive long enough for states to let them drop dog racing altogether and just run casinos.
Hess said if the state allows slot machines to go into the tracks, the Ebro track would “absolutely” still continue dog racing.
Marc Dunbar, a Tallahassee attorney whose practice focuses on gaming and government law, said there are several political factors at work that he believes eventually will lead to the end of dog racing throughout the state.
“If I was telling my kids an industry to get into for their future, it would not be breeding greyhounds,” he said.
Revenues from live greyhound racing have been declining over the years, but track officials say revenues from simulcast racing and poker haveeased the sting somewhat. Track owners have long wanted to be allowed to install slot machines at the tracks to bolster their revenues.
Florida, which in 1931 was the first state to legalize wagering on greyhound racing, opted against a measure in its most recent legislative session that would have allowed tracks to keep poker and slots and ditch the racing, a prospect known as “decoupling.”
But the plan, which proponents hope to revive in the 2015 legislative session, is seen as an expansion of gambling and faces opposition from gambling opponents and other competitors.
Dunbar said the conservative leadership in the state Legislature is opposed to an expansion of gaming in the state, and they view allowing slot machines at dog tracks as just that.
“I think any gaming bill that passed will encourage some phase-out of greyhound racing,” he said.
And if the state allowed slot machines in dog tracks, it stands to lose $277 million a year, which was negotiated in a compact agreement between former Gov. Charlie Crist and the Seminole Tribe, Dunbar said.
If slot machines were allowed in dog tracks, it would not generate nearly as much for the state as the revenues from the Seminole compact, Dunbar said.
“We have eight facilities [with slot machines] operating in South Florida, and all eight of them don’t produce as much as the Seminole Tribe does,” he said. “The compact says any expansion outside of the eight existing facilities in Dade and Broward will shut off the Seminole’s payments.”
Senate President Don Gaetz said Wednesday he could not predict whether legislation will be introduced in the next legislative session to allow slot machines at dog tracks or decoupling.
“I have never been a supporter of expanded gambling, but I would support and have supported decoupling,” he said.
He said he wouldn’t mind if dog racing ended, as there are many instances of inhumane treatment of greyhound dogs at tracks throughout the state, including at Ebro.
Some dog owners and trainers say they favor slots going into the tracks as long as the law would require the tracks to continue to have dog races. In fact, they said the slot machines could bolster attendance at the track and the greyhound races.
Teresa Duncan, who owns several dogs that race at Ebro, said if more people watched greyhound racing, it would dispel the perception the animals are abused. Duncan, who adopts the dogs that she races, said the animals enjoy racing.
“They are born with a job to do, a job that they love to do,” she said.
Joe Watson, a trainer of dogs that run at Ebro, said he is concerned about the future of dog racing.
“I’ve got over 100 greyhounds,” he said.
The concern could be quelled if a law were passed allowing slots at tracks but required live dog races, he said.
But Dunbar said he doesn’t envision legislation of this type passing.
Dunbar said some conservative legislators feel the best way for dog racing to go away is to not allow the tracks to have slot machines and let them keep operating as they now are.
Hess said he hopes after the next election the governor negotiates a new deal with the Seminole Indians that allows other games at tracks to bolster revenues, be it slot machines or blackjack or both.
In 2012, six counties voted to have slot machines, including Washington County where Ebro is located, but they have not been able to obtain permits from the state to open the slots.
Hess said that is a shame.
“If they were permitted for slot machines just in the six counties alone, we’d probably produce somewhere in the neighborhood of 6,000 new jobs and revenues of somewhere in the neighborhood of $50 million to $100 million,” he said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
An earlier version of this story appeas below:
MIAMI — A mural-sized photograph at Flagler Dog Track celebrates the good old days, decades gone: Men and women in their finest clothes lean against the fence to catch a glimpse of the greyhounds, the stands emblazoned with red, white and blue bunting, radio men perched in a booth to bring the action to fans at home.
Outside, on a recent Wednesday afternoon, the trumpet sounded, the track announcer introduced the dogs, and almost no one was there to see it. Only a couple dozen patrons looked down from the 7,000-seat grandstand.
"On a good day we can have 100 people on the stands, and they are mostly smokers who come out from the casino floor," said Isadore "Izzy" Havenick, whose family has owned the track since 1953.
The dog racing business, at once doomed and propped up by casino gambling, has come to a crossroads.
Greyhound racing's decline began years ago with the spread of casino-style gambling. To appease track operators, states gave them fat subsidies from the new gambling revenue.
The tracks themselves jumped into the casino business too, with licenses that often forced them to offer a minimum number of race days, an arrangement called "coupling."
But betting on live racing has fallen from almost $1 billion in 1990 to $258 million last year in Florida, home to 12 of the 21 tracks that regularly hold live dog races in the U.S.
The races have become a never-watched sideshow to the profitable poker rooms and slot machines.
The owners of many tracks — along with ghost tracks that now offer only simulcast racing — are hoping to survive long enough for states to let them drop the facade of dog racing altogether and just run casinos.
Lawmakers, mindful of the interests of deep-pocketed casino operators who don't want the unfettered competition, seem to have other ideas.
Last year, West Virginia lawmakers rejected a bill pushed by one of the state's two dog tracks to cut its licensing fees by more than half and to reduce the minimum number of race days.
Two months ago, Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad signed a bill that will shutter one of the state's two tracks by 2016.
Florida, which in 1931 was the first state to legalize wagering on greyhound racing, opted against a measure in its most recent legislative session that would have allowed tracks to keep poker and slots and ditch the racing. The plan, which proponents hope to revive in the session next year, is seen as an expansion of gambling and faces opposition from gambling opponents and other competitors.
The "decoupling" movement has created an odd alliance between racetrack casino operators, who see the races as a burden, and animal rights groups out to end greyhound racing altogether, much as they succeeded in outlawing cockfighting several years ago. The animal rights groups say the races and the training are cruel and say some dogs that were poor racers have been euthanized.
"When decoupling passes, it will lead to a slow and gradual end" of the industry, said Carey Theil, executive director of the anti-racing group Grey2K USA.
Dog racing's troubles also could be a preview of things to come for the horse racing industry, which in some states has identical laws tying it to casino gambling. Money bet at thoroughbred tracks dropped from just over $15 billion in 2003 to less than $11 billion in 2013, according to the Jockey Club, an industry clearinghouse.
Though stronger financially than dog racing, horse racing is also far more expensive to stage, and only a handful of the biggest tracks are profitable without casinos to support them.
Some within the horse racing industry see decoupling laws as a threat to their own sport.
"They could set a dangerous precedent for all breeds of racing," said Lonny Powell, the CEO of the Florida Thoroughbred Breeders and Owners Association, who worked for years as a regulator of dog races.
Melbourne Greyhound Park, a smaller track in central Florida, sees the biggest crowd each year during the Kentucky Derby, when around 3,000 patrons turn up to watch the simulcast screens and place bets on the horses.
Cashing in on those rare events is not enough for track operators. Promotional gimmicks such as "Doggy Dinner Theater" and races with dogs named for celebrities have not worked, said Havenick, the Miami track owner.
Reducing the number of races might help make them special events again, he suggested.
The death of dog racing would be the end of "a beautiful show," said Duke Adkinson, a longtime fan who came to Flagler — now part of Magic City Casino — with his preteen grandson Dillon to instill in him the love for the races.
"Everyone who has not seen it live needs to come at least once if they like greyhounds," Adkinson said, surrounded by empty seats and aging faces.