“The people of Gretna are being duped. The jobs that legitimate horse racing operations bring are well known to far and away exceed the economic vortex that this ill-begotten scheme would create.” Stirling explained. "The proposal was wisely thrown out by Jefferson County in 2008."
This Tuesday, November 1, 2011, the Gadsden County Commission will consider a request by Gretna Racing, LLC to authorize a countywide referendum on allowing slot machines at the Creek Entertainment Gretna facility in Gretna, a small North Florida town with a population of less than 2,000.
To view the request, click here.
If the Commission allows it, the referendum would be placed on the January 31, 2012 Republican Presidential Preference Ballot. Most of Gretna’s residents are registered Democrats and 85 percent are African-American, with a median income of $27,000 per year.
Should the referendum ultimately be approved by Republican voters, it will make Gadsden County the third in Florida to approve Las Vegas-style slot machines.
James Dorris, CEO of PCI Gaming Authority, a company owned by the Alabama Poarch Creek Indians, will make the request on behalf of his partners, which include Gulfstream Park lobbyist Marc Dunbar and former Gulfstream Park attorney, David Romanik, who briefly served as track CEO.
“With its recent and questionable license award from the Florida Division of Pari-Mutuel Wagering, Gretna has deviously positioned its minimal live racing dates to meet the State’s bare minimum requirements to operate slot machines, while insisting it will hold ‘pari-mutuel barrel racing’ so as to not have the expense and, of course, the resultant economic development created by conducting legitimate horse racing,” explained Florida Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association Executive Director Kent Stirling. “The people of Gretna are being duped. The jobs that legitimate horse racing operations bring are well known to far and away exceed the economic vortex that this ill-begotten scheme would create.”
Shortly after its approval of the Gretna license, the Florida Division of Pari-Mutuel Wagering was cited by the Florida Auditor General in an October 26, 2011 report for faulty slot machine and cardroom licensing procedures, resulting in lost revenue to the State. To view the report, click here.
Gretna Racing, clearly confident in its ability to secure the vote, has already published “Gretna Casino” Web sites, which indicate it is expecting a clear path to open its casino later in 2012, while bypassing federal and state law, as well as bona fide pari-mutuel regulation. On its site, Gretna Casino indicates that it will seek to become a North Florida “gambling getaway.”
Rick Scott: Casino Tool or Economic Leader?
Casino tools Erik Fresen and Ellyn Bogdanoff want to “control” gaming by opening the door to destination mega-resorts in South Florida.
Good luck with that.
These two lawmakers should have spent a couple of days kicking the tires in Las Vegas, where they would have learned a lot about how casinos control politicians — not the other way around. They also would have seen, firsthand, unemployment and foreclosure rates even worse than Florida’s.
Instead, Fresen-Bogdanoff drank the casino Kool-Aid. Now they’re betting that other equally naive/craven legislators will, too.
The big question is: How will Gov. Rick Scott play his hand?
Deputy press secretary Jackie Schutz said, “The governor cannot comment on the pending legislation until he sees a final bill, but he does not want Florida’s budget too heavily tied to gaming.”
But suggesting he has no aversion to gambling per se, Scott previously indicated that he favored equal tax rates for all gaming ventures.
Scott says he’s all about private-sector jobs. So, of course, the Genting Group, Las Vegas Sands and other casino sharpies are promising jobs, jobs, jobs.
The Malaysia-based Genting, which bought the Miami Herald complex to anchor “the world’s biggest casino,” says it will create 100,000 new positions.
Whether that’s a real number is debatable, but one thing is certain: The gaming industry hires mainly low-skill, low-pay workers (that’s how Las Vegas became a union town) and sucks off the local economy.
While Floridians can safely take the “under” on private-sector wages, they should bet the “over” on government jobs. Fresen-Bogdanoff’s 142-page casino bill is a full-employment act for an entirely new government bureaucracy, complete with gaming-control agents, gaming lawyers and untold legions of paper shufflers. The more “full-service” the resorts, the bigger the government support network.
If the 2012 Legislature approves Fresen-Bogdanoff, expect legal challenges early, says William Thompson, a professor of public administration at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
“There are probably going to be lawsuits all around from those [companies] that don’t get licensed,” he said.
By capping the number of resort licenses in Miami-Dade and Broward counties at three, the casino bill puts Florida in never-never land, Thompson said.
“You need the synergy of 10 or more big casinos to attract the best players,” noted Thompson, who has studied and written about the gaming industry for more than three decades.
Having worked as a journalist in Las Vegas for 13 years, I can tell you that casino operators will say and do anything to get a gaming license and expand their reach.
Genting is already working both sides of the street. First, it dazzles politicians with the biggest conceivable project. Then, when concerns arise about the cannibalization of existing businesses, it strategically scales back.
Once they’re licensed, casinos push relentlessly for more exclusions, exceptions and favors from the politicians who ostensibly regulate them. Think that will be a problem in corruption-ridden South Florida?
You can imagine the peals of laughter from casino moguls reading this sage advice from a Herald columnist:
“It all depends on how Florida legislators would regulate mega-casinos. If gaming corporations are allowed to build giant resorts with blinking lights, surrounded by “Girls, Girls, Girls” signs, pawn shops and casino company buses roaming the city offering free rides to take seniors to the gambling places, it will kill Miami as an international business center.
“On the other hand, if legislators demand that mega-casinos have a discreet appearance … and if there are laws to prevent Miami from becoming a mecca for prostitutes, drunks, pickpockets and con artists, the proposed casino resort could be a good addition.”
When it’s all about cosmetics, the gamers win. Once government banks on games of chance, the odds swing heavily to casinos. Every rule becomes negotiable. Regulatory maximums become minimums to be raised.
Any attempt to rein in casinos or increase tax rates is reflexively, and effectively, denounced as “killing the goose that laid the golden egg.” By setting a ridiculously low gaming tax of 10 percent, Fresen-Bogdanoff quickly signaled that they’re horrible poker players.
Gaming companies run numbers for a living, and know a sucker from a mile away. They’re not about to have their business models challenged by bureaucrats or “the people’s representatives.”
Gov. Scott, who has loads of private-sector experience, knows a thing or two about the foibles of government regulation. As a native of Illinois, he also should be well aware of the gaming industry’s deleterious fiscal and social effects on that state.
Politically speaking, this is a no-brainer. The Florida Chamber of Commerce and virtually the entire tourism industry oppose an expansion of gaming. Florida voters have repeatedly voted down casino initiatives, and even the liberal St. Petersburg Times ridiculed this latest scheme.
Las Vegas, Atlantic City and 900 cheesy casino venues in between stand as monuments of a contemptuous and parasitic enterprise that promises money for nothing.
If Scott intends to lead Florida to meaningful economic growth, that’s a promise and a premise he must summarily reject.
Reach Kenric Ward at kward@sunshinestatenews.com or at (772) 801-5341.
About the Florida Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association (“FHBPA”)
Part of the National Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association, the FHBPA fosters, promotes and encourages a healthier economic climate and a higher level of public acceptance of the thoroughbred horse industry in the State of Florida and better relations among its participants. Importantly, it also protects the safety of members, their stable personnel and their horses, and works with racetrack management to ensure acceptable training and stable area conditions, and proper emergency preparedness and procedures. The FHBPA strives to bring about a closer and more understanding relationship between Florida horsemen, Florida racing associations, the State of Florida and its various branches of government, including but not limited to, the Department of Business and Professional Regulation, Division of Pari-mutuel Wagering, and its departments and sub-divisions, and the public. www.fhbpa.com
By Gray Rohrer, 10/27/2011
An auditor general’s report out Thursday found the Department of Business and Professional Regulation did not properly apply its rules regarding oversight of pari-mutuels.
The report found that beginning on July 1, 2009, DBPR’s Division of Pari-mutuel Wagering issued three-year occupational licenses for slot machines at rates of $100 for individuals and $2,000 businesses, instead of at rates of $150 and $3,000, respectively, as their rules stipulate. The discrepancy cost the state $105,300, according to the audit. The division filed to change the rule to the lower rates in October 2010, but it has not been implemented.
As of Feb. 28, DBPR has issued six three-year occupational licenses for card rooms, instead of annual licenses as DBPR rules require. DBPR contended that a recent state law allows them to issue three-year licenses, but the department has not yet put in place a rule outlining that authority, so the annual requirement is still on the books.
DBPR also accepted monthly reports of slot machine and card room licensees without requiring them to be submitted under oath, as state law requires.
The report comes one day after a bill to allow three resort casinos in South Florida was filed. The bill also would remove DBPR’s oversight of gaming operations and replace it with a Gaming Commission with broader powers to create and enforce rules governing gaming in the state.
Sen. Ellyn Bogdanoff, R-Fort Lauderdale, is sponsoring SB 710 and thinks the commission is needed to set Florida’s “strategic direction” on gaming.
“Yes, the regulation needs to be tight,” Bogdanoff said Thursday. “This commission would definitely clean that (lax oversight) up.”
A lineup of heavy-hitting interests is moving to stop the bill, and criticism of the nominating process of the seven-member commission already is being leveled.
John Sowinski is the president of No Casinos, the group dedicated to halting the expansion of gaming in Florida. He said the nominating structure of the commission would exacerbate the influence of moneyed interests in Tallahassee. The process, which would allow the House Speaker and Senate President to appoint members of a nominating committee to give candidate names to the governor for selection, would be a fundraising boon for the legislative leaders, Sowinski said.
“It would make what’s going on in Tallahassee a permanent condition, and that is reason enough to vote against it,” he said Wednesday.
Bogdanoff took umbrage at that characterization of the commission, and asserted that the nominating structure provides enough layers to guard against undue influence.
“I find that actually insulting,” she said of Sowinski’s comments. “It’s the best way to take politics out of the process and not violate the (state) constitution.”
To view this story on The Florida Current Web site, go to: http://www.thefloridacurrent.com/article.cfm?id=25163584
About the Florida Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association (“FHBPA”)
Part of the National Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association, the FHBPA fosters, promotes and encourages a healthier economic climate and a higher level of public acceptance of the thoroughbred horse industry in the State of Florida and better relations among its participants. Importantly, it also protects the safety of members, their stable personnel and their horses, and works with racetrack management to ensure acceptable training and stable area conditions, and proper emergency preparedness and procedures. The FHBPA strives to bring about a closer and more understanding relationship between Florida horsemen, Florida racing associations, the State of Florida and its various branches of government, including but not limited to, the Department of Business and Professional Regulation, Division of Pari-mutuel Wagering, and its departments and sub-divisions, and the public. www.fhbpa.com
by Paulick Report Staff | 10.27.2011
As expected, legislation was filed Wednesday in the Florida legislature that would allow three full-scale casino resorts to be built in South Florida. Debate will officially begin when state lawmakers reconvene in January, but the lobbying from both sides has already started.
Florida Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association Executive Director Kent Stirling issued this statement:
“There’s no question that Florida’s horse racing industry is chagrined at today’s filing of the destination gaming bills. In its wisdom, our State Legislature has ensured that Florida law reminds us that the State’s horse racing industry is a $6.3 billion dollar annual economic driver and provides crucial agricultural and tourism infrastructure that reaches far into our employment base—something that no destination resort will ever do. As documented by a national Deloitte economic study, for every horse that walks onto a racetrack in Florida, seven jobs are created.”
“Over the years, our Legislature has carefully nurtured horse racing to ensure the perpetuation of its acknowledged job creation ability, economic impact and pageantry, we also are confident that, in their efforts to employ Floridians by ensuring the future of Florida’s existing industrial base, our elected officials will not fail in their good efforts.”
About the Florida Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association (“FHBPA”)
Part of the National Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association, the FHBPA fosters, promotes and encourages a healthier economic climate and a higher level of public acceptance of the thoroughbred horse industry in the State of Florida and better relations among its participants. Importantly, it also protects the safety of members, their stable personnel and their horses, and works with racetrack management to ensure acceptable training and stable area conditions, and proper emergency preparedness and procedures. The FHBPA strives to bring about a closer and more understanding relationship between Florida horsemen, Florida racing associations, the State of Florida and its various branches of government, including but not limited to, the Department of Business and Professional Regulation, Division of Pari-mutuel Wagering, and its departments and sub-divisions, and the public. www.fhbpa.com
State Representative Erik Fresen filed three highly anticipated destination gaming bills today, October 26, 2011. Summaries of these proposals and hyperlinks to complete bill information are below, along with news coverage from the Miami Herald:
HB 0491 Relating to Pub. Rec./State Gaming Commission by State Representative Erik Fresen
Provides exemption from public records requirements for confidential & proprietary business information & trade secrets received by State Gaming Commission; provides exemption from public records requirements for information held that would reveal investigation techniques & procedures used by State Gaming Commission; provides exception to exemption for other governmental entities having oversight or regulatory or law enforcement authority; provides penalties for employee of commission who violates provisions of act; provides for future review & repeal of exemption under Open Government Sunset Review Act; provides statement of public necessity. Effective Date: on the same date that HB 487 or similar legislation takes effect, if such legislation is enacted in the same legislative session, or an extension thereof, and becomes law, and only if this act is enacted by a two-thirds vote of the membership of each house of the Legislature
HB 0489 Relating to Trust Funds/Destination Resort Trust Fund/Department of Gaming Control by State Representative Erik Fresen
Creates Destination Resort Trust Fund within Department of Gaming Control; provides for purpose of trust fund; provides for future review & termination or re-creation of trust fund. Effective Date: on the same date that HB 487 or similar legislation takes effect, if such legislation is enacted in the same legislative session, or an extension thereof, and becomes law, and only if this act is enacted by a three-fifths vote of the membership of each house of the Legislature
HB 0487 Relating to Gaming by State Representative Erik Fresen
Creates State Gaming Commission & Department of Gaming Control to oversee pari-mutuel wagering, slot machines, & gaming; deletes Division of Pari-mutuel Wagering within Department of Business and Professional Regulation to conform; redesignates ch. 551, F.S., relating to slot machines, as pt. II of that chapter; creates pts. I & III of ch. 551, F.S., relating to State Gaming Commission & destination resorts, respectively; revises provisions in chs. 550 & 849, F.S., relating to pari-mutuel wagering & gambling, respectively, to conform; conforms other provisions of law. Effective Date: July 1, 2012
By Mary Ellen Klas
Herald/Times Tallahassee Bureau
That would mean no equal treatment for South Florida’s eight racinos — race tracks and casinos — which would pay higher tax rates than the new casinos and be allowed to operate only pari-mutuel and slot machines. It would mean no more monopoly for the Seminole Tribe, which would lose its exclusive right to operate blackjack, baccarat and other table games at their seven Florida casinos and would stop making annual payments to the state.
Instead, the bill would allow full Las Vegas-style games at three locations in South Florida in exchange for a $2 billion investment each in high-end “destination resorts.” Applicants would pay $50 million for the right to compete for the licenses and would be judged on their ability to draw tourists from Latin America, Asia, Europe and across the U.S., Bogdanoff said.
“Florida is considered the fourth largest gambling state in the nation, but it has let the industry drive policy decisions and that has produced the worst kind of gaming,’’ she said Tuesday. “To me, no kind of gaming is good, but we, as policymakers, have to decide, do we want gaming with five-star hotels or Internet cafes in strip malls?”
To that end, the authors have carefully cleansed the bill of any emphasis on gambling. The 142-page overhaul of state gambling regulations never uses the word “casino” but instead refers to the facilities as “limited gaming” and calls the legislation the “Destination Resort Act.”
Bogdanoff concedes that while her goal is to reduce gambling by allowing the pari-mutuel industry to shrink, that industry is a powerful political force that will work to insert provisions into the casino bill to protect themselves. Florida’s 55 horse and dog tracks, jai-alai frontons and card rooms have been financially stagnant for the past decade and have been forced to return to the Legislature every year to get additional games, lower tax rates and longer hours to remain profitable.
Bogdanoff believes that in order for the bill to pass the Senate, where the influence of Florida’s horse and dog tracks is strong, it may need to be modified to give the pari-mutuels the same tax rate as the casino resorts would get — 10 percent, a drop from their current 35 percent rate.
“That bill will look like a dog chewed on it when it gets out of the Senate and the House will have to decide what it wants to do,’’ she said. “We’re going to have to let it play out.”
Dan Adkins, president of Mardi Gras Gaming and Racetrack in Hollywood, wants his industry to be treated equally to the resort casinos, but urged Fresen and Bogdanoff to slow down before they leap ahead with the massive bill.
“There could be huge negative impacts on surrounding businesses like hotels, restaurants and retailers,’’ he said Tuesday, “not to mention the loss of revenue and jobs from the existing casino-racino industry and the Seminole compact.’’
The 10 percent tax rate proposed for the resort casinos is the lowest in the nation, except for Nevada’s 6.5 percent tax rate on gambling. Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio have tax rates in excess of 30 percent. “A detailed thorough study is the only way to prevent a negative irreversible situation,’’ Adkins said.
Bogdanoff and Fresen have no plans to slow down. Their bill not only shifts the state’s focus, it creates a new state agency to do it and it puts in place a steady timeline that could have the state awarding licenses by July 2013, one year after the bill would become law.
Awaiting the opportunity to bid on a “destination resort” license are several companies, including Genting Americas. The Malaysian-based company purchased The Miami Herald property in May and is leasing the land back to the company for two years, rent free, as it works to persuade Florida lawmakers to authorize resort casinos.
Here are some of the major components of the 142-page bill, which would be taken up when the Legislature holds its two-month session beginning in January:
• Three resort casinos would be authorized in Miami-Dade and Broward, the two counties that now offer slot-machines gaming.
In return for the exclusive licenses, casino operators must commit to investing at least $2 billion on entertainment, convention center and resort complexes intended to draw tourists and high-rolling gamblers. The price tag to participate is $50 million, refunded if the state rejects a company’s bid.
• Casinos would pay 10 percent tax on net revenues. That is less than the 35 percent tax rate now imposed on the revenues of the state’s eight pari-mutuels with slot machine licenses in South Florida.
• Casino space must be no more than 10 percent of the total square footage of the facility.
• Casino games would include slot machines, roulette wheels, craps, poker, blackjack, baccarat and other table games.
• The casino space would be segregated from other attractions, so that a visitor can attend the resort without ever having to see the gambling venues.
• Applicants for the “limited gaming” license would be judged based on their ability to “increase tourism, generate jobs, provide revenue to the local economy and provide revenue to the General Revenue Fund.”
• The bidders would be scored based on a system that gives 35 percent weight to the proposal’s design and location, 10 percent to the company’s management expertise, 35 percent to the speed with which it can get its plans to market, 10 percent to its access to capital, and 10 percent to its community plan.
• Key employees of the casinos would have to pay a $5,000 application fee for an occupational license and undergo an extensive background check. Suppliers would pay a $25,000 license and each resort would pay a $50,000 alcoholic beverage license.
• Casinos would be open 24 hours a day, every day of the year, and be allowed to serve alcohol during all of those hours.
• Resorts would have to prove financial strength and ability to “train and employ residents” including training of “low-income persons.”
• A State Gaming Commission would be created to select the winning bidders. It would be headquartered in South Florida and have broad authority to not only issue the licenses but to investigate and issue subpoenas, take enforcement action, collect taxes and impose fees and penalties. It would be exempt from public disclosure rules for some financial data and would be allowed to hold some of its meetings in secret.
• The commission would serve as the head of the Department of Gaming Control, the state agency that replaces the current Division of Pari-mutuel wagering.
• The commission would be composed of seven members with staggered four-year terms. They would be appointed by the governor and include an accountant with gaming experience and a veteran law enforcement officer. Three names would be nominated for each post by a nominating committee of legislators appointed by the House speaker and the Senate president.
• Commission members would be paid $125,000 yearly and the chairman, named by the governor, would be paid $135,000.
• Strict limits would be placed on who can serve on the commission, including a ban on banning anyone with a personal or financial relationship to any of the applicants or anyone who has been under indictment or been charged with a gambling violation or fraud.
• All casino owners and partners would have to undergo strict background checks, including financial screening.
• The Department of Gaming Control would contract with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to assist in investigations and enforcement and contract with the Department of Revenue to assist in tax collection and investigation.
Mary Ellen Klas can be reached at meklas@MiamiHerald.com and on Twitter at MaryEllenKlas
By Nick Sortal
In the latest move by some pari-mutuels to do the bare minimum to qualify for other forms of gambling, a horse track west of Tallahassee went to the state and got approval for barrel racing.
Never bet on barrel racing before? Well, apparently nobody has.
The National Barrel Horse Association, based in Augusta, Ga., tells the Bloodhorse’s Jim Freer that to his knowledge, wagering on an event seen mostly at rodeos is new turf.
Freer, who does a great job following the off-track issues of racing, said Gretna Racing LLC also plans to have a year-round poker room starting Dec. 17.
The Florida Division of Pari-Mutuel Wagering approved the application Wednesday. It doesn’t spell out barrel racing per se, but Marc Dunbar, a Tallahassee attorney who is a 10% owner of Gretna Racing, told Freer that was the plan.
Horsemen protested to the state, saying it’s obviously a work-around. That’s because Florida pari-mutuels who meet minimum requirements of races/jai-alai matches get to run a poker room year-round.
Some folks argued that’s what happened at Hialeah Park the past couple of years, as the former grand dame of racing reopened with quarterhorse racing in order to qualify for a slot permit. The casino is under construction, despite an unrelated legal challenge.
ACTION is a view of the numbers, the psychology and the flavor of gambling here in South Florida, through our lens.
We do have one sure bet. There’s something here for you.
NICK SORTAL began playing 3-card “gut” and “Indian poker” on high school band trips, moved on to “night baseball” and “pass the trash” during a Dr. Pepper-infused midnight game in the 1980s at the St. Louis Globe-Democrat, and now play in a regular neighborhood Hold ‘Em game in Plantation. I have been given the assignment of writing about the gambling life in South Florida casinos for the Sun-Sentinel…which means sitting around watching poker on TV now counts as research.
To view this story on its own Web page, click here.
by Paulick Report Staff | 10.20.2011 | 6:36am
Despite the vocal objections of 70,000 Florida and national horsemen, and against the warnings of expanded gambling, the Florida Division of Pari-Mutuel Wagering has approved a license application yesterday, October 19, 2011, for Gretna Creek Entertainment, a consortium of insider lobbyists and an Alabama tribal Indian gaming company, to hold additional racing dates under its existing Quarter Horse racing permit.
Even though Gretna’s application and the resultant granted license made no mention of its intention to use the added dates to replace legitimate Quarter Horse racing with rodeo-style mixed breed “barrel racing,” Gretna’s lobbyist and Indian owners have wantonly publicized the fact that they also presume to have been granted carte blanche by Florida pari-mutuel regulators to freely flout the law and run a 365-day cardroom and poker operation, while paying short shrift to federal statutes, Florida’s Legislature, the horse racing industry and its diverse people.
Ironically, while promulgating its self-owned “North Florida Horsemen’s Association” whose membership contract would prevent mostly unsuspecting, under-aged barrel racers from joining any other horsemen’s group, the Gretna conspirators have concurrently launched a volatile and destructive pair of lawsuits aimed at the State’s longstanding Standardbred industry and fledgling Quarter Horse racing industry, with the end goal of overturning a federal law that protects the horse racing community with legal rights in issues such as negotiating with track owners on purse money. The Thoroughbred industry is expected to be targeted next.
“I’m not really surprised by this decision,” Florida Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association Executive Director Kent Stirling said in an interview with the Blood Horse, a respected international Thoroughbred industry magazine. “After all, this is Florida. These three guys spent a couple of years working on this. It looks like they will make a lot of money on a poker room, without a lot going to the barrel racers. This also could be very detrimental to the future of horse racing in Florida.”
With the glaring absence of any pari-mutuel regulatory infrastructure or installation thereof at Gretna yet to be addressed by the Division of Pari-Mutuel Wagering, Gretna claims it will open for racing on December 1, 2011.
In the article to the right, the Blood Horse noted that the Florida Division of Pari-Mutuel Wagering approval of Gretna’s application raises the issue of what activities are permissible under a Quarter Horse permit or any other pari-mutuel permit in Florida, for that matter. According to Florida law, any pari-mutuel permitholder that conducts at least the minimum number of required “performances” a year can also have a poker room open 365 days a year. Expectedly, poker has been the main source of revenue growth at many non-horse pari-mutuel facilities in Florida.
Gulfstream Park, Pompano Park, Tampa Bay Downs, Hialeah Park, and the Florida Thoroughbred Breeders and Owners Association all own Quarter Horse licenses, Stirling noted.
Quote from Dr. Stephen D. Fisch, President; Florida Quarter Horse Racing Association:
“While we are disappointed in the Division’s decision, we are confident that the Florida statutes regarding this issue are unequivocal. It is our position that the granting of the Gretna license is inconsistent with the Florida statutes and horse racing industry standards. We are currently exploring our legal options. Behind each obstacle or disadvantage there is an advantage or benefit of equal magnitude. You just have to look for it. This situation has greatly united the horsemen of Florida and actually the horsemen around the country. We have the full support of the United Horsemen of Florida which is composed of the Florida Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association, the Florida Standardbred Breeders’ and Owners’ Association, the Florida Thorougbhred Breeders’ and Owners Association, the Florida Quarter Horse Association, National Barrel Association and its Florida Chapter, the American Quarter Horse Association and the Florida Quarter Horse racing Association. We also have the support of major individual industry leaders such as AQHA/NBHA/WPRA World Champion and Hall of Fame Barrel Racer, Martha Josey and others.
“Activity such as the granting of this license actually helps open the door to correct loopholes in the law. This decision affects not only the Quarter Horse industry, but the Thoroughbred and Standardbred industries as well, because their statutory language closely mirrors the Quarter Horse language. The legislators who voted to close loopholes in the gaming laws in 2010 will probably want to look closely at the statutes to make sure the same type of activity is not attempted again in the future. When it is all over, the horse industry and the people of Florida should be better than ever. If our governmental leadership really wants to produce jobs, I don’t think they will trade a few card room jobs for tens of thousands of equine industry jobs and all the spinoff jobs that go with them. The fact is: Each racehorse on a race track produces seven jobs.”
Despite the vocal objections of 70,000 Florida and national horsemen, and against the warnings of the business community and other Floridians on expanded gambling, the Florida Division of Pari-Mutuel Wagering has approved a license application yesterday, October 19, 2011, for Gretna Creek Entertainment, a consortium of insider lobbyists and an Alabama tribal Indian gaming company, to hold additional racing dates under its existing Quarter Horse racing permit. Warping the law to suit its goal of a year ’round poker room, Gretna plans to use its racing dates to run “pari-mutuel barrel racing” beginning December 1, 2011.
Florida OKs Pari-Mutuel Barrel Racing Meet
by Jim Freer
Date Posted: 10/19/2011
The Florida Division of Pari-Mutuel Wagering late in the afternoon Oct. 19 approved an application by Gretna Racing LLC to use its Quarter Horse permit to conduct pari-mutuel barrel racing at its facility in Gretna, Fla., about 25 miles west of Tallahassee,
Gretna Racing’s 40-race card meet, which it plans to begin on Dec. 1, 2011, would be the first pari-mutuel barrel racing in Florida. Gretna Racing also will have a year-round poker room with Dec. 17 as the planned opening date, said Marc Dunbar, a Tallahassee attorney who is a 10% owner of Gretna Racing.
Two prominent Florida Thoroughbred horsemen’s associations were among groups that had asked the Florida DPMW to not allow Gretna Racing to use its Quarter Horse permit for pari-mutuel barrel racing. Barrel racing is a rodeo-like event in a cloverleaf pattern around three barrels. It is popular in several parts of Florida, and in numerous other states.
The National Barrel Horse Association “has no knowledge of any pari-mutuel barrel racing” in any state, according to Rick Hardy, membership director of that Augusta, Ga.-based organization.
The Florida Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association and the Florida Thoroughbred Breeders’ and Owners’ Association sent letters to the Florida DPMW and its parent agency the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation, asking them to reject Gretna Racing’s application. The two Thoroughbred groups were joined in that opposition by the Florida Quarter Horse Racing Association. All three associations maintain that pari-mutuel barrel racing is not authorized under the state’s laws.
Those three groups also expressed concerns that approval of the Gretna Racing application could lead other Quarter Horse permit holders to use barrel racing as a low-cost route to opening potentially lucrative poker rooms.
The Florida DPMW’s two-page notice of a pari-mutuel license approval did not include the words “barrel racing.” Dunbar said Gretna Racing will hold barrel racing, as specified in the application it filed Sept. 30.
The DPMW notice provided no indication of any precedent for future approvals of pari-mutuel barrel racing for holders of Quarter Horse permits.
The application lists the Poarch Creek Tribe, based in Atmore, Ala., as 70% owner of Gretna Racing. That American Indian tribe owns most of the land at the facility in Gretna.
The application lists David Romanik, a former Gulfstream Park president, and Paul McGee, a Tallahassee attorney, each with 10% ownership. Dunbar, a partner in the Pennington Law Firm in Tallahassee, also is a lobbyist for Gulfstream Park and for several gaming equipment companies. Gulfstream is not affiliated with Gretna Racing.
Some observers felt that a central issue for the Florida DPMW would be reviewing the definitions of horse racing and Quarter Horse racing in Florida pari-mutuel laws to determine if Gretna Racing’s intended use of Quarter Horses makes barrel racing an eligible event. Those laws require a Quarter Horse meet to have at least half its races as Quarter Horse races. Other races in mixed meets under a Quarter Horse permit can include Thoroughbreds and other designated breeds.
The Florida DPMW approval of the application raises the issue of what activities are permissible under a Quarter Horse permit or any other pari-mutuel permit in Florida. Any Florida pari-mutuel permit holder that conducts at least the minimum number of required performances a year can have a poker room that can be open 365 days a year. Poker is the main source of revenue growth at many non-horse pari-mutuel facilities in Florida
In a Sept. 18 letter to the Florida DPMW, Florida HBPA executive director Kent Stirling wrote. “We remind you that Gulfstream Park, Pompano Park, Tampa Bay Downs, Hialeah Park, and the Florida Thoroughbred Breeders and Owners Association all have Quarter Horse licenses.”
He later told The Blood-Horse that the Florida HBPA is hoping to prevent any efforts by tracks to substitute low-cost barrel racing for conventional race meets while keeping poker rooms and, in Miami-Dade and Broward counties, casinos.
“I’m not really surprised by this decision,” Stirling said. “After all, this is Florida. These three guys spent a couple of years working on this. It looks like they will make a lot of money on a poker room, without a lot going to the barrel racers. This also could be very detrimental to the future of horse racing in Florida.”
In its application, Gretna Racing said it plans to hold 40 barrel racing cards between Dec. 1, 2011, and Jan. 15, 2012.
Gretna Racing has a purse agreement with the North Florida Horsemen’s Association. Wesley Cox, a board member of that group which was formed last year, said he expects that at least 80% of the horses would be Quarter Horses in barrel races at Gretna.
In June 2010, the Florida DBPR issued Gretna Racing a permit to hold barrel racing on a non pari-mutuel basis.
Florida Horsemen 