Henry wants gambling at state's struggling horse tracks

Butch Wise, manager of the Lazy E Ranch in Guthrie, Okla., leads Finish Line Express past his row of stalls at the Winter Mixed Sale at Heritage Place in Oklahoma City, Thursday, Jan. 22, 2004. Race-track attendance in Oklahoma soared shortly after pari-mutuel betting began at Blue Ribbon Downs in 1984, but has declined since Indian gambling took off in the 1990s. Race purses have fallen, making horse breeding and training less profitable. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)

Seven years ago, New Mexico's horse racing and breeding industry was choking under competition from American Indian casinos. Track purses were down, and many ranches had even ceased stocking breeding mares.

"We were probably on our last gasp," said Lonnie Barber, executive director of the New Mexico Horsemen's Association. "We were either going to have to get out of the business or go to another state."

So, the New Mexico Legislature passed a law allowing tracks to install up to 750 slot machines, and now purses at Sunland Park across the state line from El Paso, Texas, are up tenfold. Ranches are booming.

"There's more people coming to the track," Barber said. "Our pari-mutuel went up since we got the machines. Sunland Park is up 22 percent on track pari-mutuel handle last year."

It's a success story Gov. Brad Henry and the horse industry would like to emulate in Oklahoma, where competition with Indian casinos and race tracks in New Mexico and Louisiana have crippled tracks and breeders.

They're calling on lawmakers this spring to allow three of the state's four race tracks to have electronic gaming machines similar to those found in the state's more than 80 Indian casinos. This year's session of the Oklahoma Legislature begins on Feb. 2.

Under the bill, the state would get a share of Indian gambling proceeds and increased regulation, while tracks and tribes would get access to more enticing games that are now in legal limbo, said State Finance Director Scott Meacham, who was Henry's point man on the issue.

Henry announced the deal Tuesday. The parties to the agreement are the Choctaw and Chickasaw nations, the horse industry and Remington Park in Oklahoma City, Blue Ribbon Downs in Sallisaw and Will Rogers Downs in Claremore.

"This legislation will help save jobs and produce new funding for education," the governor said.

Similar legislation passed the state Senate in 2003, but failed in the House amid opponents' claims that it would lead to Las Vegas-style gambling in the state.

This year's proposal makes a few changes, and the increasingly dire condition of the state's race tracks make it more likely to pass, officials said.

"With every year that passes you probably have more opportunities," said Rep. Forrest Claunch, a Midwest City Republican who opposes gambling. "The one thing about gambling and greed, they never go away. Good people sometimes grow thin."

But the measure still has many critics, who say expanding gambling will lead to more societal ills like divorce, bankruptcy and suicide.

"The gambling industry made big financial promises to Oklahoma just a few years ago when horse racing was legalized," said Ray Sanders, spokesman for the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma. "Race tracks are closing because many Oklahomans recognize gambling is not good for our state."

Race track attendance soared shortly after pari-mutuel betting began at Blue Ribbon Downs in 1984, but has declined since Indian gambling took off in the 1990s. Race purses have fallen, making horse breeding and training less profitable.

But the biggest blow has come in the last few years as Louisiana and New Mexico allowed their tracks to enhance live racing and simulcasting with slot machines, sending daily racing payoffs there rocketing to as much as six times greater than those in Oklahoma.

It has meant that more and more racers are ignoring Oklahoma, pressing purses even farther down here and further reducing attendance in a plummeting spiral.

"We have fewer horses," said Dale Day, spokesman for Remington Park, the state's largest track. "When you have fewer horses, you're not getting that handle money to keep the purse structure going."

Remington's richest race, the Oklahoma Derby, saw its purse drop to just $150,000 this year down from $300,000 a few years ago, Day said. Attendance at last fall's Remington races fell by 28 percent, according to a state audit.

All this also hurts breeders, whose clients are increasingly choosing rivals in New Mexico and Louisiana because races there offer premium awards to winners that were bred in-state.

"We've had clients that have bred here for 15 to 20 years, but they have started to send some mares to New Mexico or Louisiana," said Butch Wise, manager of the Lazy E Ranch in Guthrie. "As breeders, if their horse wins the race in those inflated purses, they stand to gain monetarily."

Wise, Henry and others warn that if the horse industry downfall continues, then ranches, tracks, feed stores, trailer companies and fence builders are all in jeopardy.

"It sounds like you all need something," said New Mexico's Barber. "I don't know how you got it set up, and I don't know what the proposals are, but definitely, it kept our industry alive. I'll put it that way."