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Pari-mutuels Say New Gambling Compact Leaving Them Out

Posted on April 9th, 2010

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Jack Collins Jr., vice president and general manager of the Sarasota Kennel Club raised objections Wednesday over the new gambling deal’s lack of regard for the pari-mutuel industry. I don’t see anything good out of it for us,” said Collins. “We feel we’re getting shut out from a competitive edge.”Collins claims the new billion-dollar five-year gambling agreement made by state legislators and The Seminole Tribe of Florida last week would not provide any benefit for his business, and he fears for the eventual weakening of the state’s time-honored industry. “My feeling is, in five years, a lot of people in the pari-mutuel industry won’t be around,” he predicted.

Vera Filipelli, track director of media relations for Derby Lane sees things the same way and said the pari-mutuel industry was not taken into account when the negotiations for the gambling compact were being done. “There’s no consideration for any of the thousands of employees that work at these facilities — we’ll be unemployed. It’s written as if it’s something that will help us,” she said of the gambling agreement.

When the stipulations of the agreement was announced Tuesday, officials affirmed that part of the deal was specifically for the purpose of helping the kennel club and pari-mutuels all over the state cope with competition from the tribe’s casinos.

When the complaints reached Republican state Representative Bill Galvano of Bradenton, head of the negotiating panel, he, in support of the provisions, clarified the terms, giving further details about the agreement. “Overall, for all the pari-mutuels, this is a significant improvement from the status quo,” he said. “The Tribe is not going to operate any more games than it was before the agreement in the Tampa Bay area, so the situation the kennel was facing as far as games being operated by The Tribe before this compact has not changed.

What has changed is that The Tribe’s facility will be regulated at a higher standard with more state involvement, which helps the Sarasota Kennel Club be more competitive from a regulatory standpoint.” “The future for the Sarasota Kennel Club is now predictable in that the state has clear authority at the end of five years to discontinue the card games in Tampa — or before, if we so choose — or even to authorize games at other places,” Galvano explained.

But for Collins, those provisions were not enough, such as the one calling for a lower tax rate for horse and dog tracks and jai-alai frontons in Miami-Dade and Broward counties. “Under the law, they’ll reduce their tax rate from 50 percent to 35 percent — they say to give them a fair shake at competing with the Indians, but the way we’re looking at it is: What are you giving Sarasota, St. Pete and Tampa, who also have to compete, and are getting no options to compete,” Collins questioned.The compact has still to be approved by the Legislature and the Seminole Tribal Council.