State is losing its bet on tracks

Fortunes have reversed so much at the state’s horse and dog tracks that the Kansas Racing and Gaming Commission may need to get a $700,000 bailout from Kansas Lottery funds, the Lawrence Journal-World reported. The problem is that gambling at the tracks has dropped so much that the taxes collected no longer cover the cost of regulating the gambling. In 1990 the amount wagered at races was $273.4 million. Last year it was $79.7 million. Attendance has also declined in recent years — from 172,209 in 2004 to 157,644 in 2005 at Wichita Greyhound Park, and from 361,611 in 2004 to 328,109 in 2005 at the Woodlands in Kansas City, Kan. Adding slot machines at the tracks would more than make up any shortfall, but odds of lawmakers allowing expanded gaming still remain long.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee

7 Comments

  1. ken
    Posted February 9, 2007 at 5:47 am | Permalink

    A 700k bailout only serves to insure the profits for the owners of the tracks and rewards the poor performance by management of the tracks. The lottery funds were never intended to be a bailout position for failed business efforts.

    It seems the track lobby has prevented any meaningful discussion on cassinos for SE and South Central Kansas.

  2. JM
    Posted February 9, 2007 at 9:09 am | Permalink

    Yes, there needs to be a limit on bailouts of failed business. I remember watching greyhound races on TV 45 years years ago. It had no attraction for me then and still doesn’t.

    Face it, it will never have the pageantry and history of horse racing so why bother prolonging a race that hardly anyone is interested in except the owner of the track, a few race dog owners and some gamblers.

    Can anyone say one-trick pony?

  3. CapnAmerica
    Posted February 9, 2007 at 9:14 am | Permalink

    The reich-wing always asks me what I mean when I talk about “welfare-for-the-rich.”

    Well, you’re looking at it. Arenas, dog tracks, no-bid cost-plus contracts to huge companies . . . it’s all part of the same thing: funnelling public money to a small set of rich businesspeople in enterprises that DO NOT benefit the common good.

    It’s not lazy people that are ruining our budget–it’s legalized corruption.

  4. Ben Huie
    Posted February 9, 2007 at 9:45 am | Permalink

    Allow commercial capitalist development of ‘gaming’ – be it casone, dog track with slots or whatever. But lets get away from Communist development in what should be private enterprise.

  5. Joe Williams
    Posted February 9, 2007 at 11:35 am | Permalink

    Reason why attendence has drop drastically at the tracks is because the Casinos that have been popping up in Oklahoma and on the Missiouri River.

    I bet you can find a direct correlation between attendence drop and the number of new casinos that have popped up out of state.

    I’m not saying that slots is the answer to the tracks whoas. They are on their own, but my concern, as with many other people, is that people are traveling to the out-of-state casinos to game and they are taking their money with them.

    Personally I have never stepped inside the Greyhound Track. So I don’t know what it’s like. I don’t go to Casinos either. So they have no personal interest for me.

  6. mrbill
    Posted February 9, 2007 at 3:03 pm | Permalink

    Joe is right on. All the money went to more attractive gambling venues. Not many people know or care about horses, dogs other than to pet them or ride them.

    Other forms of gaming are easier to understand, and have nicer facilities. Get a big casino in the middle of the WaterWalk and you may save the whole concept…heck it might even save Gander Mountain..but doubtful. But then the building could then be a casino…hey.

  7. thinkfirst
    Posted February 9, 2007 at 7:56 pm | Permalink

    The good christian folk in the Kansas Legilature belived that all of us poor, stupid, rag-tag, riff-raff Kansans would go to the dog track and spend the rent money and our children’s milk money gambling on dog races. Didn’t happen. Now those same fine christian folk belive that we will spend our money in slot machines. Won’t happen.