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Florida’s dog racing “mecca” will hold its final greyhound shows on Thursday night as the mainstay of the game nears its possible demise across the United States.
After the 15th race Thursday night at the Palm Beach Kennel Club in West Palm Beach, Sunshine State will leave the greyhound business for good, leaving only four tracks in three states – West Virginia, Arkansas and Iowa – still chasing rabbits. .
Just over 25 months ago, Florida voters overwhelmingly approved the 13th Amendment, which outlawed greyhound racing and issued what could amount to a national death sentence for the centennial American sport.
When voters went to the polls in 2018, Florida had 11 of America’s 17 dog tracks, spread across six states. Earlier this year, the tracks in Texas and Alabama closed, leaving only four other states in business. That will now come down to three states.
“Florida was the (dog racing) mecca, the base, the biggest state with the most tracks,” Humane Society Florida Director Kate MacFall recently told NBC News, celebrating her state’s role in the decline of the sport. “Now this industry has withered.”
Jim Gartland, CEO of the umbrella group for the dog racing industry, the National Greyhound Association, admitted that he sees the day when greyhounds will no longer race in America.
“I hate to say it, I hate even thinking about it,” Gartland said. “It may be five years in the future, it may be 10 years in the future, but it is definitely a possibility.”
Florida’s penultimate track standing, Derby Lane in St. Petersburg, closed its doors on Sunday.
The final state race will be “The Long Run Championship,” a 545-yard race with a $ 10,000 purse. The last post time is scheduled for 11:59 pm EST on Thursday.
“It’s horrible. It’s very sad,” Gartland said. “I’ve had people in this industry that I’ve seen cry for the past few months.”
By the late 1980s, there were more than 60 dog tracks in operation in the US, with action in Connecticut, Colorado, Arizona, Wisconsin, Idaho, Kansas, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Oregon, Vermont, and New Mexico. , according to the association.
“It’s no secret, dog racing has been in decline for several years now,” said Palm Beach Kennel Club president Patrick Rooney Jr., whose family has owned the track since 1969. “Dog racing it didn’t take long in this world. “
Rooney, grandson of Pittsburgh Steelers founder Art Rooney and nephew of former U.S. Ambassador to Ireland Dan Rooney, said the change in opinion on animal rights has put greyhound racing on the fast track towards extinction.
Animal rights activists have long opposed greyhound racing, saying the dogs live in tight spaces and suffer from harsh working conditions.
“Anything that has an animal component is going to have a hard time surviving in this society that we are becoming,” said Rooney, theorizing that dog racing, horse racing and rodeo could one day go the way of the circus. . “We are being more sensitive, whether they are real or imagined, to the feelings of animals and how they are treated.”
After Florida’s ban takes effect on Friday, there will be laws on the books in 41 states against the sport, according to Christine Dorchak, co-founder of the anti-racing group GREY2K.
Still unsatisfied with the sport’s near-comatose state, Dorchak said her group is pushing for federal legislation against greyhound racing that she insists has bipartisan support.
Even without the work of animal activists like GREY2K, the Humane Society, and the late singer Doris Day, dog racing has been losing out on the bottom line to gamers for years.
- In Florida, dog tracks made $ 135.9 million in bets in fiscal 2019-20, a 29 percent drop from the $ 191.5 million bet in the prior 12 months. It was the eighth consecutive year of greyhound betting in decline. Florida Dog Tracks received $ 265 million in wagers in 2011-12, nearly double the action they took during the most recently ended period.
- With Florida on the brink of disappearing from the world of dog racing, West Virginia is poised to become the nation’s premier greyhound jurisdiction. Mountaineer State accepted $ 124.8 million in wagers on its two dog tracks in 2019.
- In Iowa, the state’s lonely dog track raised $ 2.3 million in live and simulcast greyhound action through the end of November this year. That’s on track for a third straight year of decline.
- In Arkansas, there was $ 14.2 million in live betting on dog racing in 2019, the lowest value in 10 years of data provided by that state’s Department of Finance and Administration. That 2019 figure also marked the third consecutive year of decline.
It is believed that Arkansas and Iowa could soon end the sport.
Operators at Southland Casino Racing in West Memphis, Arkansas, have already said they will stop racing by December 31, 2022. An Iowa greyhound industry sunset subsidy in late 2022, which could end dog racing in two years. the state of Hawkeye.
The demise of dog racing comes as Americans, at least before the coronavirus, play more than ever.
US commercial gambling halls and tribal casinos posted $ 78.2 billion in 2019 gaming revenue, according to data from the American Gaming Association and the National Indian Gaming Commission. That compares with $ 60.8 billion in revenue in 2009 and $ 32 billion in 1999.
However, dog racing operators have been unable to capitalize on this rapidly growing pie of gaming revenue.
Even state lotteries, the action of which relies on numbered balls falling through curved tubes, are making big money as dog races decline.
The Mega Millions game sold $ 2.6 billion in tickets in 45 states, Washington DC, and the US Virgin Islands in fiscal year 2019-20. That’s a monumental jump from the $ 434 million sold in 1996-97 when Mega’s predecessor, The Big Game, had sales of $ 434 million in just six states.
Dog tracks haven’t been able to attract new customers or have even found ways to link up with other, more profitable companies, said Brett Abarbanel, research director at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas International Gaming Institute.
He cited the thoroughbred track in Del Mar for its success in combining horse racing with concerts and craft beer festivals in creative ways to keep the sport relevant near San Diego.
“Dog racing as a whole has not adapted much to new entertainment options,” Abarbanel said. “Even compared to horse racing, which has had similar problems attracting new customers, dog tracks have not made any major changes.”
Unlike soccer, baseball, basketball, hockey, and soccer, where the ball or puck is in constant motion, greyhounds run at 15-minute intervals, pauses in the action that could bore children. Potential dog racing fans, according to Gartland of the National Greyhound Association.
“The older, slower sports are starting to be eliminated, particularly baseball,” he said. “Maybe that’s the stigma that greyhound racing has too? It’s old. It’s done. It’s seen its moment.”
