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Florida has horse racing tracks, and now, beyond just
the tracks, Florida is home to class III slot machines. Gulfstream Park is
the first location to open their slot machines although two other facilities
that operate pari-mutuel betting are approved for the machines. Gulfstream
plans on continuing to run the races, but now the additional revenue from
the slot machines means that they can offer bigger purses . And that is
great for Gulfstream, but what about the Calder Race Course.
Calder is a racing facility much like Gulfstream, but the main difference
lies in the slot machines—Calder wasn’t approved for a slots license and
thus will not benefit from any slot revenue. In the long run, Calder
anticipates that this difference will cause them to loose the better horses
to other states with horse racing, and Calder will not be able to compete
with the purse sizes at Gulfstream.
Calder doesn’t foster any ill-will for Gulfstream Park (the parent companies
Churchill and Magna Entertainment are close) they would just like to also
see some of the benefits Gulfstream has because of the slot machines. And
according to experts, allowing slot machines at Calder would bode well for
increasing their purse sizes and attracting higher caliber horses to the
racetracks. And that is exactly what many think the track should be focusing
on—higher quality horses rather than slot machines.
The opposition to the slot machines say that both tracks are focusing too
much attention on something that isn’t even the real issue—where have the
sophisticated betters gone? The tracks across the nation are resorting to
adding slot machines to their tracks because of the larger problem, horse
race betting isn’t nearly as popular as it once was—and many think that’s
what needs to be addressed.
A trainer at Clader had the following to say about Gulfstream, “I see
Gulfstream doing one or two things. Since there's no regulation, and they
can open whenever they want, they could run six months, maybe November
through April or the first week in May, or they could bankroll all the money
they make in the slots and give it away during the three months they run
now."
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