Racing Community Views Slots Bill as Last Shot at Parity

At the end of last month's meeting of the Maryland Racing Commission, member Jacqui Nigh pleaded with all in attendance to spread the word throughout the thoroughbred and harness racing community to keep pushing for the proposal that would legalize slot machines in the state -- to slap bumper stickers on their cars, wear lapel pins and stand outside polling stations on Election Day.

"I know you have done so much already," Nigh said. "We need to do more."

These are worrying times for the state's thoroughbred and standardbred racing and breeding industries. "Do you think it will pass?" has become as common a phrase as "Who do you like?" among those who make their living at the racetracks and breeding farms.

While most of the debate on the measure on Tuesday's ballot has focused on the state's projected budget shortfall and funding public education, horsemen see it as a make-or-break decision for their livelihoods. The proposal, which would authorize as many as 15,000 slot machines at five locations, earmarks some of the slots revenue to help their industry.

"If the slots bill does not pass, I will sell my house here, and I'm going to move," said trainer and breeder Mary Eppler, 54, of Westminster. "If it doesn't pass, there's no future for the horsemen here."

Scott Arceneaux, senior adviser to Marylanders United to Stop Slots, said he sympathizes with the plight of the racing industry, "but that doesn't mean it's good public policy to subsidize one form of gambling with another."

Supporters believe slots would produce an estimated $60 million a year by 2013, to be pumped into purses at the tracks and into breeding fund accounts. An additional 2.5 percent of slots revenue would be earmarked for racetrack renovations for eight years, provided owners produce matching funds.

Maryland racing and breeding interests see this as their last chance to gain equal footing with rivals in neighboring Delaware, Pennsylvania and West Virginia, all of which resuscitated struggling racing programs through the legalization of slots.

Magna Entertainment, which owns Laurel Park and Pimlico Race Course, authorized the Maryland Jockey Club to donate $2 million to For Maryland For Our Future, a pro-slots ballot committee. The Maryland Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association gave $300,000; the Maryland Horse Breeders Association gave $25,000. Developer William Rickman Jr., who owns Delaware Park as well as Ocean Downs on the Eastern Shore, has given $425,000 through various entities.

"For the horse industry, everything is on the line," said Cricket Goodall, executive director of the Maryland Horse Breeders Association. "If I didn't see substantial support, I would be shocked."

For years, racing and breeding interests in Maryland have told legislators in Annapolis that their business was in peril because of the advent of slot machines in neighboring states. Each of those states poured slots money into their sleepy racing industries.

The impact was profoundly felt in Maryland, long the leading racing state in the Mid-Atlantic. As prize money for races rose at neighboring tracks, purses at Laurel Park and Pimlico Race Course remained stagnant or declined.